bent as a nine-bob note
"bent-as-a-nine-bob-note" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bent as a nine-bob note” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 23
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Extremely dishonest or criminally-minded.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bent-as-a-nine-bob-note · bent as a nine-bob note · English
bent as a nine-bob note · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 23 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bent as a nine-bob note |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 23 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bent as a nine-bob note” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
bent as a nine-bob note is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for bent as a nine-bob note in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: In pre-decimal English money, a nine-bob (nine-shilling) note would obviously be fraudulent, since there was no such denomination. The correct English form is bent as a nine-bob note, spelled B-E-N-T- -A-S- -A- -N-I-N-E---B-O-B- -N-O-T-E.
Definition
- 1Extremely dishonest or criminally-minded.
- 2Ostentatiously homosexual.
Etymology
In pre-decimal English money, a nine-bob (nine-shilling) note would obviously be fraudulent, since there was no such denomination.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
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Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.