two-up
adjEtymology From two + up.
1
Of a printed document Having two document pages per printed page.
two-up
nounalso spelled two-upEtymology From two + up.
1
Games Australia, New Zealand A game of chance, played by betting on the outcome of two pennies thrown in the air.
- From the image of a wily digger playing two-up, to a prime minister at the track or the tables, the construction of gambling is as an activity quintessentially Australian.1993, Ernest Hunter, Aboriginal Health and History: Power and Prejudice in Remote Australia, page 242:
- The origins of two-up remain obscure. It probably derived from ‘pitch and toss’, a game British youths had played since the late eighteenth century. In Australia pitch and toss was first recorded in the 1850s on the Victorian goldfields, and in New Zealand as a street game on the West Coast in the early 1870s. Two-up evolved as a variant, becoming popular in Australia in the early 1890s, and in New Zealand a year or two later, as labouring men from both countries traversed the Tasman Sea in search of work.1994, David Malcolm Grant, On a Roll: A History of Gambling and Lotteries in New Zealand, page 66:
1 more example
- Perversely, Scorps chooses not to punt on Anzac Day and won′t go near two-up, probably because his losses will be too public.2008, Sam De Brito, The Lost Boys, page 280:
- Synonyms
- swy, swy-up
- Related terms
- cross and pile, three-up