"tenpence to the shilling" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "The British shilling was worth twelve pence, so tenpence would be a deficient exchange.",
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "tenpence to the shilling",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1909, Edward R. Hartley, Train Talks, page 4:",
          "text": "I knew that chap; but he never was more nor tenpence to the shilling. He was one of the men, we say, who fell out of his cradle and knocked his head.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1951, Crichton Porteous, Wild Acres, page 203:",
          "text": "He felt no curiosity about news or daily events, and was getting to be looked on as 'tenpence to the shilling' in the head.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Ruth Hamilton, A Whisper To The Living:",
          "text": "Whenever he did manage to engineer a meeting she always treated him as if he was only tenpence to the shilling, a few bricks short of a load, as if he needed another brain cell to qualify as a plant.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Mentally deficient."
      ],
      "id": "en-tenpence_to_the_shilling-en-phrase-rA6uNKs2",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, slang, dated) Mentally deficient."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "dated",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tenpence to the shilling"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "The British shilling was worth twelve pence, so tenpence would be a deficient exchange.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "tenpence to the shilling",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1909, Edward R. Hartley, Train Talks, page 4:",
          "text": "I knew that chap; but he never was more nor tenpence to the shilling. He was one of the men, we say, who fell out of his cradle and knocked his head.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1951, Crichton Porteous, Wild Acres, page 203:",
          "text": "He felt no curiosity about news or daily events, and was getting to be looked on as 'tenpence to the shilling' in the head.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Ruth Hamilton, A Whisper To The Living:",
          "text": "Whenever he did manage to engineer a meeting she always treated him as if he was only tenpence to the shilling, a few bricks short of a load, as if he needed another brain cell to qualify as a plant.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Mentally deficient."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, slang, dated) Mentally deficient."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "dated",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "tenpence to the shilling"
}