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English

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Etymology

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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for two pins

  1. (British, idiomatic) Readily, with only the slightest encouragement.
    • 2009, H. DeVere Stacpoole, The Man Who Lost Himself, →ISBN, page 202:
      He doesn't, but he's a man with an eye in his head, and he knows what we are, a boneless lot without organization. I say it myself, I said it only last night in this here bar, and I say it again, for two pins I'd chuck my party. I would so.
    • 2010, Mary Balogh, Seducing An Angel, →ISBN:
      For two pins he really would slap a glove in each of their faces.
    • 2014, David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, →ISBN, page 4:
      But for two pins I'd hand in blank papers and tell school where to shove Pythagoras triangles and Lord of the Flies and their life cycles of worms.