two-up

English

Alternative forms

• two up, 2-up

Etymology

From two +‎ up.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

two-up (uncountable)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, games) A game of chance, played by betting on the outcome of two pennies thrown in the air.
   • 1993, Ernest Hunter, Aboriginal Health and History: Power and Prejudice in Remote Australia‎^[1], page 242:

     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.

   • 1994, David Malcolm Grant, On a Roll: A History of Gambling and Lotteries in New Zealand‎^[2], page 66:

     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.

   • 2008, Sam De Brito, The Lost Boys‎^[3], page 280:

     Perversely, Scorps chooses not to punt on Anzac Day and won′t go near two-up, probably because his losses will be too public.

Synonyms

• (gambling game): kangaroo craps (US), swy, swy-up

Translations

a game of chance

• Maori: tūapu

See also

• cross and pile — similar coin-tossing game
• three-up

Adjective

two-up (not comparable)

1. (of a printed document) Having two document pages per printed page.

   Hypernym: N-up

Adverb

two-up (not comparable)

1. (manner, of travel on a motorcycle) With two people aboard.

   Some of us rode two-up as we travelled in convoy to the beach.

See also

• dink
• ride pillion