Brewer's: Forty Winks

A short nap. Forty is an indefinite number, meaning a few. Thus, we say, ?A, B, C, and forty more.? Coriolanus says, ?I could beat forty of them? (iii. 1). (See Forty.)

?The slave had forty thousand lives.?

Shakespeare: Othello, iii. I.

I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum.

Shakespeare: Hamlet, v. 1.

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