Fives

A game similar to court-tennis; the hand, however, is used instead of a racket. Said to be so called because the game is three fives (15).

“He forgot that cricket and fives are capital training for tennis.”—T. Hughes: Tom Brown at Oxford, chap. ii.

A bunch of fives. The fist, in which the five fingers are bound in a bunch.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.