Talk:number three

RFV discussion: October 2015–February 2016
Urine and urination. Isn't that number one? That's what I've always heard. Never heard it called number three. 2602:306:3653:8920:A908:1E26:5117:867E 15:57, 28 October 2015 (UTC)


 * To rhyme with wee/pee? Anyway, can't find it (I tried various Books searches e.g. "need a number three"), and found at least one source suggesting there's no such thing: "Better they think she had to go number three than something so odd that it didn't even have a number." Equinox ◑ 16:02, 28 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Number one means you need to pee. Number two means you have to poo. Number three is numbers one plus two. It’s more urgent than either one or two alone. —Stephen (Talk) 04:34, 29 October 2015 (UTC)


 * I tend to agree with Stephen, just, I don't have any evidence. Renard Migrant (talk) 18:03, 2 November 2015 (UTC)


 * This is in exactly that sense, but it's not a durable source. Spinning Spark  19:34, 2 November 2015 (UTC)


 * My mum used to have a little poster that said, ‘If you do number one, or number two, don’t forget to do number three: wash your hands with soap and water.’ (Paraphrased.) -- Romanophile ♞ (contributions) 11:48, 29 October 2015 (UTC)


 * According to What's Your Poo Telling You?, it means diarrhea. However, this says that the third reason one might go to the toilet is masturbation. Spinning Spark  19:34, 2 November 2015 (UTC)


 * I reckon that "number three" lacks a set cultural definition, but instead is applied to anything that seems logical in conjunction with the set definitions of numbers one and two; it might refer to urgency (Stephen), sequence of events (Romanophile), or intensity of activity (diarrhoea/masturbation). (FWIW, "diarrhoea" is the sense that I used as a child.) One or more of these may prove to be citable, but overall they are largely independent or semi-independent neologisms, hence the wide range in semantics. —Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 20:38, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I know we can't use this, but this morning I asked an ex-paratrooper what he though going for a number three meant. Without any prompting he said it means "polishing your rocket" (he had to be semi-polite because his wife was within earshot).  On that evidence, it would seem that the masturbation meaning is widely known in the military, although not something that will be written down too often. Spinning Spark  13:41, 3 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I laughed so hard at "polishing your rocket" that I had to go for a number four! AliHautala (talk) 13:58, 28 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Urban Dictionary has the following surprisingly believable explanation, but i wasn't able to find any reliable source for it on line. On the other hand, maybe not many books of nursery rhymes have been scanned. Maybe someone in an English-speaking country just needs to go to a big library. I must say i remember dimly hearing a long time ago something about a children's rhyme that causes confusion with numbers one and three in English:

"Comes from the childrens nursery rhyme:

Number one, tickle my bum

Number two, do a big poo

Number three, go for a wee"
 * --Espoo (talk) 16:15, 3 December 2015 (UTC)


 * RFV failed: No citations have been found for the challenged sense, and no more than one for any other bathroom-related sense. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 18:18, 27 February 2016 (UTC)