bunch of fives
British slang for a fist, or the act of punching someone with it.
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Born ~1800 · no dated citations yetDefinitions
British slang for a fist, or the act of punching someone with it. 'Five' refers to the five fingers on a hand, and a 'bunch' of them curled into a fist makes for a classic bit of colourful Cockney and general British street talk. Threatening someone with a bunch of fives means you're warning them they're about to get decked. It can also be used with dark humour or bravado, and has enough old-school charm to turn up in crime dramas and pub banter alike.
Keep talking and you'll get a bunch of fives right in the face, mate.
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(British, slang) A punch; a blow with the fist.
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(British, slang) A fist.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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(colloquial) A clenched fist.
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(poker, _, slang) A pair of fives.
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A British slang euphemism for male masturbation. The phrase is playfully anatomical — five knuckles referring to the fist, shuffle describing the rhythmic motion. It's used humorously rather than lewdly in most contexts, fitting neatly into British culture's tradition of bawdy wordplay. Frequently heard in lad banter, stand-up comedy, and British sitcoms where direct language would be too crude but a wink-and-nudge euphemism gets the same message across.