innings

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.ɪŋz/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnɪŋz

Etymology 1

From the old verb inn (“to house corn”).

Noun

innings (plural innings or (rare) inningses)

1. (cricket) One side's (from when the first player begins to bat, until the last player is out) or individual player's turn to bat or the runs scored during those durations.
2. A comparable period of play in croquet or roque.
3. (British) The time during which any party is in possession of power, or enjoying good luck, etc.; a turn of any kind.
4. (British, euphemistic) A person's lifespan.
   • 1994, John Lehmann, Alan Ross, Sebastian Barker, The London Magazine:

     Forty-odd. That's a better innings than Mozart's thirty-five. Only a moderate knock perhaps in an era brimming with space age technology, and transplants, and artificial hips etcet, but still higher than Mozart's.

   • 2007, Roger F. Peters, Police Under Pressure: A Donkey on the Edge, Roger Peters, →ISBN, page 22:

     My mother-in-law died at 89 years of age, while sad and as you might expect, we used the phrase “she had a good innings”.

   • 2009, Mark Radcliffe, Thank You for the Days: A Boy's Own Adventures in Radio and Beyond, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     He was the first of my grandparents to die but none of them made it much past seventy, although that was very much looked on as 'a decent innings' in early-seventies England.

   • 2010, Jacqueline James M P, An Ignoble End, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 79:

     You can only say, she had a good innings, so many times. I suppose seventy nine isn't so bad. It's a damn sight more than I can expect.

   • 2012, Peter Fitzpatrick, The Two Frank Thrings, Monash University Publishing, →ISBN, page 523:

     Like father, like son. Sixty-eight. Not such a bad innings, really, when the old man was gone at fifty-three.

Usage notes

• In British English, innings is used for both singular and plural, with the corresponding grammatical agreement (e.g. this innings is over vs. these innings are over). The form inning is not heard (except in connection with baseball or softball).

Derived terms

• change of innings
• early innings
• extra-innings
• extra innings
• late innings

 

Translations

a period of play in cricket

• Hindi: पारी (hi) f (pārī)

Etymology 2

Noun

innings

1. plural of inning

Anagrams

• sinning

Spanish

Noun

innings m pl

1. plural of inning