(Fr. dixme or dime, tenth.) A silver coin of the United States, in value the tenth of a dollar, or ten cents.
This term, peculiar to our decimal currency, is now in common use at the South and West; but in the Eastern and
Northern States, where the Spanish real and half-real have long formed a large portion of the circulation, and where the dime is only now beginning to be common, it is usually called a ten-cent piece, and the half-dime a five-cent piece.
Small articles are sold in the New Orleans markets by the picayune or dime's worth. If you ask for a pound of figs you will not be understood; but for a dime's worth, and they are in your hands in a trice.--Sketches of New Orleans. N. Y. Tribune.