forty (1 very common in Eliz. dramatists)
1.
used
indefinitely to express a large number
Err. IV. iii. 84
“worth ducats,”
Cor. III. i. 242
“I could beat of
them,”
Sonn. ii. 1
“When winters shall
besiege thy brow”
; so “ thousand”
Wint. IV. iii. [iv.] 279,
R2 III. ii. 85 (Ff Q5; others “twenty”), Ham. V. i. 291, Oth. III. iii. 443.
2.
“
pence,” a customary amount for a wager
H8 II. iii. 89.
