Half-dollar

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A coin worth one half of a dollar, typically 50 cents.

    "The Crescent Road sheds had a favourite locomotive - Stanier 4MT tank engine 42626 (known by Bolton locomen as 'two half-dollars') - and the shed authorities quietly arranged for it to be put to one side for a few days, while the ardent schoolboys set to work cleaning it. [This may be inspired by the number 42626 where 26 occurs twice; the half-crown was worth two shillings and sixpence - 2s 6d or 2/6.]"

Example

More examples

"The Crescent Road sheds had a favourite locomotive - Stanier 4MT tank engine 42626 (known by Bolton locomen as 'two half-dollars') - and the shed authorities quietly arranged for it to be put to one side for a few days, while the ardent schoolboys set to work cleaning it. [This may be inspired by the number 42626 where 26 occurs twice; the half-crown was worth two shillings and sixpence - 2s 6d or 2/6.]"

Etymology

From half- + dollar.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.