Definition of "fourscore"

Thou ſtick'ſt a dagger in me, I ſhall neuer ſee my gold againe, foureſcore ducats at aſitting, foureſcore ducats.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i], page 173

Euen thoſe that were numbꝛed of them, were eight thouſand, and fiue hundꝛed, and foureſcoꝛe.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Numbers 4:48

“I could be sorry for these men,” he said, “ay, and for that poor Queen, but what avail earthly sorrows to a man of fourscore?—and it is a rare dropping morning for the early colewort.”

1820, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in The Abbot. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and for Archibald Constable and Company, and John Ballantyne, […], page 353

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

1863 November 19, Abraham Lincoln, Dedicatory Remarks (Gettysburg Address)‎, near Soldiers' National Cemetery, Bliss copy, page 1

Old Martha was standing at a table trussing a pair of chickens for the market stall as she had trussed them for nearly fourscore years.

1914, Saki, ‘The Cobweb’, Beasts and Superbeasts

[…] I know every life is equally sacred, but that is a thought, another thought, I mean, all these valuable people who aren’t going to have their normal fourscore as it is now, these people aren’t going to be replaced, and it’s such a loss to the culture.

1986 November 24, Susan Sontag, “The Way We Live Now”, in The New Yorker‎

W. J. Davis, a retired missionary, a veteran in the fourscores of his years.

1922, James Edward Carruthers, Memories of an Australian Ministry, 1868 to 1921, page 125