innings
nounUK /ˈɪn.ɪŋz/
Etymology From the old verb inn (“to house corn”).
1
Ball games, Cricket, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports One side's (from when the first player begins to bat, until the last player is out) or individual player's turn to bat or the runs scored during those durations.
2
A comparable period of play in croquet or roque.
3
UK The time during which any party is in possession of power, or enjoying good luck, etc.; a turn of any kind.
4
UK, Euphemistic A person's lifespan.
- Forty-odd. That's a better innings than Mozart's thirty-five. Only a moderate knock perhaps in an era brimming with space age technology, and transplants, and artificial hips etcet, but still higher than Mozart's.1994, John Lehmann, Alan Ross, Sebastian Barker, The London Magazine:
- My mother-in-law died at 89 years of age, while sad and as you might expect, we used the phrase “she had a good innings”.2007, Roger F. Peters, Police Under Pressure: A Donkey on the Edge, Roger Peters, →ISBN, page 22:
3 more examples
- He was the first of my grandparents to die but none of them made it much past seventy, although that was very much looked on as 'a decent innings' in early-seventies England.2009, Mark Radcliffe, Thank You for the Days: A Boy's Own Adventures in Radio and Beyond, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
- You can only say, she had a good innings, so many times. I suppose seventy nine isn't so bad. It's a damn sight more than I can expect.2010, Jacqueline James M P, An Ignoble End, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 79:
- Like father, like son. Sixty-eight. Not such a bad innings, really, when the old man was gone at fifty-three.2012, Peter Fitzpatrick, The Two Frank Thrings, Monash University Publishing, →ISBN, page 523:
- Derived terms
- change of innings, early innings, extra-innings, extra innings, late innings