Dime

Dime (from the Lat. decima, a tenth, through the O. Fr. disme), the tenth part, the tithe paid as church dues, or as tribute to a temporal power. In this sense it is obsolete, but is found in Wycliffe’s translation of the Bible—“He gave him dymes of alle thingis” (Gen. xiv. 20). A dime is a silver coin of the United States, in value 10 cents (English equivalent about 5d.) or one-tenth of a dollar; hence “dime-novel,” a cheap sensational novel, a “penny dreadful”; also “dime-museum.”