Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search


Etymology 1[edit]

Particularly: “in + -ing ?!”


innings ‎(plural innings)

  1. (cricket) One side's or individual's turn to bat (from when the first player begins to bat, until the last player is out,) or the runs scored during those timeframes.
  2. (Britain) The time during which any party is in possession of power; a turn of any kind.
  3. (Britain, euphemistic) 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 9780646471051), 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 9781847377166)
      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 9781452055510), 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 9781921867248), 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[edit]

In British English, innings is used for both singular and plural; inning is not heard (except in connection with baseball or softball).

Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]



  1. plural of inning