twelve

Pluraltwelves

1. 1
   numeral

   The cardinal number occurring after eleven and before thirteen, written 12 in Arabic numerals and XII in Roman numerals.

   Twelve jurors filed into the courtroom and took their seats.

   The recipe called for twelve ounces of melted butter.

   Note

   A number whose name is a small sum. Old English twelf goes back to Proto-Germanic *twalif, "two left over": the two that remain once the counting has reached ten. The number has long carried weight in calendars and myth. Eleanor Webster Bulatkin's Structural Arithmetic Metaphor in the Oxford "Roland" (1972) gathers examples: twelve spokes in the Hindu wheel of Rta, and twelve gates of hell through the twelve hours of night.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A group of twelve items, counted or sold together as a unit.

   The cups are sold as a twelve, boxed together.

   He bought three twelves of oysters for the dinner.

   Similardozen

   Note

   Here the number becomes a countable noun with its own plural, twelves. Its natural home is the phrase by twelves, which describes a way of grouping or counting rather than a single batch. Fractions would come easier if we counted by twelves, because a twelve splits evenly into halves, thirds and quarters. Elsewhere it usually needs a sales or packing context to be understood.

3. 3
   nounslanguncountable

   Police officers as a group, with particular reference to drug-squad or narcotics officers.

   Word spread that twelve had raided the block before dawn.

   He kept a lookout for twelve while the others finished up.

   Similarcops, police, fuzz

   Note

   Slang for the police, applied especially to narcotics officers. It is used like a name, often with no article: twelve showed up, keep a lookout for twelve. It is firmly slang and out of place in neutral writing. In legal talk the same word can mean the jury, so context decides which group of people is meant.

4. 4
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A jury, which normally consists of twelve persons empaneled to decide a case.

   After three days, the twelve still could not agree on a verdict.

   The judge sent the twelve out to begin their deliberations.

   Similarjury

   Note

   Courtroom shorthand that names the jury by its usual headcount. It belongs to colloquial talk about trials, not formal legal writing, and it nearly always takes the definite article: the twelve retired, the twelve came back. Because twelve is the normal size rather than a fixed rule, the nickname rests on custom, not arithmetic.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A shotgun with a twelve-gauge bore, used for hunting and sport shooting.

   The old man kept a twelve mounted above the fireplace.

   He brought his twelve along for the duck hunt.

   Note

   A clipped form of twelve-bore, the kind of short name shooters give their guns. It behaves like any countable noun, so two of them are twelves. Lawrence Durrell's Constance (1982) has a character inherit "two fine hammerless twelves" for duck on the Camargue. The sporting setting is what makes the shortening clear, so it sits best in talk of hunting and shooting.

6. 6
   nounslanguncountable

   The front; the side of or the position directly in front of something.

   The pilot called out a contact at twelve.

   Stay alert. There's movement at your twelve.

   Oppositesix

   Note

   Military slang, shortened from twelve o'clock. Picture a clock face laid flat around you, and twelve points straight ahead. The word usually takes a possessive (watch your twelve, contact at my twelve), so the direction is measured from the speaker or listener, not from a map. It works as a quick spoken call; in ordinary prose, ahead or in front does the same job.

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