deuce

Etymology 1

From Middle English dewes (“two”), from Anglo-Norman, from Old French deus, from Latin duo.

noun

1. (card games) A card with two pips, one of four in a standard deck of playing cards.
   You see, Sir, when I look at the Ace it reminds me that there is but one God. The deuce reminds me that the bible is divided into two parts; the Old and New Testaments. And when I see the trey I think of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 1948-01-01, “Deck of Cards” (track 20), in Famous Country Music Makers, performed by Tex Ritter
2. (dice games) A side of a die with two spots.
3. (dice games) A cast of dice totalling two.
4. The number two.
   1. (Canada, US, slang) A piece of excrement.
   2. (Canada, slang) A two-year prison sentence.
5. A hand gesture consisting of a raised index and middle fingers, a peace sign.
6. (tennis) A tied game where either player can win by scoring two consecutive points.
7. (baseball) A curveball.
8. A '32 Ford.
   1978, Joe Mayall, “Driving Impression: Reproduction Deuce Hiboy”, in Rod Action, page 26:
   It belonged to “the 1932 guy,” who had four or five Deuces sitting in his yard. 2012, Pat Ganahl, Lost Hot Rods II: More Remarkable Stories of How They Were Found, page 62
9. (in the plural) 2-barrel (twin choke) carburetors (in the phrase 3 deuces: an arrangement on a common intake manifold).
10. (restaurants, slang) A table seating two diners.

Etymology 2

Compare Late Latin dusius (“phantom, specter”); Scottish Gaelic taibhs, taibhse (“apparition, ghost”); or from Old French deus (“God”), from Latin deus (compare deity).

noun

1. (epithet) The Devil, used in exclamations of confusion or anger.
   Love is a bodily infirmity […] which breaks out the deuce knows how or why 1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, Catherine
   To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him. 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
2. Synonym of devil (“something awkward or difficult”)
   We had a deuce of a time getting here.