fifteens
- 1Plural of fifteen.
The coach split the squad into two fifteens for the practice match.
She grouped the totals into fifteens to make the adding easier.
Note
Two different nouns stand behind this plural. One is the number used as a noun for groups of fifteen: a squad split into two fifteens, or totals counted off in fifteens. The other is Irish. A fifteen is a traybake of crushed digestive biscuits, marshmallows, glacé cherries, condensed milk and desiccated coconut, so a batch is cut into fifteens. The same spelling also names the medieval property tax.
- 2A tax in medieval England levied on the value of the movable property (goods and chattels) that subjects owned.
Parliament granted the king two fifteens to fund the war in France.
Collectors traveled from village to village gathering the fifteens owed to the crown.
Note
The name gives the rate: the tax took a fifteenth of the value of a subject's movable goods. Parliament granted it, and it was often levied together with a tenth charged on towns and the royal demesne. The word belongs to writing about medieval England. Outside that setting, readers will take it as the plural of the number, so give enough context to make the tax clear.
fifteens is a form of fifteen
fifteen, noun: A sweet Irish traybake in which crushed digestive biscuits, marshmallows, and glacé cherries are mixed with condensed milk and desiccated coconut. Full entry
- Forms
- fifteenfifteens plural
- Spelling
- fifteen → fifteens: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
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