fifth

Less common meanings

4. 4
   right to silencenouncolloquialUSus

   Short for the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, or for the right it gives a person to refuse to answer questions that could incriminate them.

   Called before the Senate committee, the former executive invoked the Fifth and declined to testify.

   Asked how much she spent on shoes last year, my sister just laughed and said she was pleading the Fifth.

   UsageUsually take the Fifth or plead the Fifth, with a capital F. Said jokingly, it means refusing any awkward question.

5. 5
   liquor bottlenounUScountable

   A quantity of liquor equal to one-fifth of a US gallon, or, more commonly, 750 milliliters.

   He grabbed a fifth of tequila on the way to the cookout.

   The liquor store ran a weekend sale on fifths of vodka.

   UsageUsually a fifth of a spirit: a fifth of whiskey, a fifth of vodka. It is less often said of wine or beer.

   Note

   The bottle was once a fifth of a US gallon. It is now usually 750 milliliters, a metric size, yet the old fraction stays on the shelf and in the shop talk.

6. 6
   music intervalnouncountable

   The musical interval spanning five degrees of the scale, counting both notes, as from C up to G.

   The melody rises a fifth at the start of the chorus.

   Power chords on guitar use two notes a fifth apart, such as A and E.

   UsageTwo notes are a fifth apart, or a tune rises a fifth; the usual full name is perfect fifth.

   Note

   The interval at the heart of Western harmony: the perfect fifth spans seven semitones, with a frequency ratio near 3:2, which is why it sounds so stable. Musicians also use the word for the chord built on the fifth scale degree. In Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah (1984), the lyric names the fourth and then the fifth while the music walks through exactly that progression. Context tells you whether an interval or a chord is meant.

7. 7
   gearnoununcountableellipsis

   In a vehicle's transmission, the fifth forward gear, typically engaged for cruising at higher speeds.

   She shifted into fifth as the highway opened up ahead.

   Don't force it into fifth until you're past fifty miles an hour.

   UsageUsed with no article, like other gears: shift into fifth, in fifth, drop out of fifth.

8. 8
   agree tooverbcolloquialtransitive

   To express support for something as the fifth person to do so, after four others have already voiced theirs.

   Four of my roommates had already backed the taco plan, so I jokingly fifthed it before anyone could object.

   When the fourth person in the group chat wrote "I fourth that," I couldn't resist replying, "And I fifth it."

   UsageA play on I second that: after four others agree, someone jokes I fifth that.

   Similarback, endorse, support

   Oppositeoppose

   Note

   IndieWire's 2017 survey Critics Pick the TV Shows That Get Mental Health Right has "seconding (or fifthing) the praise." The parenthesis shows how the word usually arrives, coined on the spot.

9. 9
   noun

   In polyphonic music, the fifth voice part of a composition.
10. 10
    verbnonstandard

    To divide a number or quantity by five.
11. 11
    verb

    In medieval music, to improvise a second voice over a given tune, singing mostly a fifth above it.