/ · 1894 Brewer’s · F · Forty Winks
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A short nap. Forty is an indefinite number, meaning a few. Thus, we say, “A, B, C, and forty more.” Coriolaʹnus says, “I could beat forty of them” (iii. 1). (See Forty.)
“The slave had forty thousand lives.”
Shakespeare: Othello, iii. 1.
“I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum.”
Shakespeare: Hamlet, v. 1.
· ·
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
· 
· 