forties

noun

1. (form-of, plural)plural of forty
2. (plural, plural-only)The fifth decade of a century: the 1840s, 1940s, 2040s, etc.

   “My ma was born in the forties and my pa was born in the seventies.”

3. (plural, plural-only)The decade of one's life from age 40 through age 49.

   “They're both in their forties.”

   “Albrecht Lein reports that the core of the Braunschweig Antifa was made up of KPD and SPD members in their forties and fifties who had avoided the front, though Catholic workers’ organizations and other forces were also involved.”

4. (plural, plural-only)The range between 40 and 49.

   “What to wear when the weather is in the forties really depends on whether you're talking fahrenheit or celsius.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)From or evoking the 41st through 50th years of a century (chiefly the 1940s).

   “Two forties aircraft sat forgotten in the hangar until they were rediscovered by two trespassing teens.”

   “Like any big modern city, Scott's Los Angeles of 2019 is saturated with technologies; in fact, it is most striking for its layering of technologies, styles, lifestyles and ethnicities, which range from oriental peasant altars and cookfires through forties hats and building facades to off-world colonies and androids.”

name

1. A sea area, in the northern part of the North Sea, where the depth of water is consistently forty fathoms