rag

→ Kashubian: reksa (United States)

From Middle English ragge, from Old English ragg (suggested by derivative raggiġ (“shaggy; bristly; ragged”)), from Old Norse rǫgg (“tuft; shagginess”), from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, probably related to *rūhaz. Cognate with Swedish ragg. Related to rug.

I have ace-four on my hand. In other words, I have ace-rag.


Katie

(poker slang) A king and a ten as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em due to phonetic similarity with "K-T"


trip

From Middle English trippen (“tread or step lightly and nimbly, skip, dance”), perhaps from Old French triper (“to hop or dance around, strike with the feet”), from a Frankish source; or alternatively from Middle Dutch trippen (“to skip, trip, hop, stamp, trample”) (> Modern Dutch trippelen (“to toddle, patter, trip”)). Akin to Middle Low German trippen ( > Danish trippe (“to trip”), Swedish trippa (“to mince, trip”)), West Frisian tripje (“to toddle, trip”), German trippeln (“to scurry”), Old English treppan (“to trample, tread”). Related also to trap, tramp.

cog

(poker slang) Of or relating to trips (three of a kind).


honor

en-noun

honor (countable and uncountable, plural honors)

From Middle English honour, honor, honur, from Anglo-Norman honour, honur, from Old French honor, from Latin honor.
Displaced Middle English menske (“honor, dignity among men”), from Old Norse menskr (“honor”) (see mensk).
The verb is from Middle English honouren, honuren (“to honor”).

оньо́р

card games: one of the most valuable cards

a prophet has no honor in his own country

a prophet is not without honor save in his own country

(countable, card games) In bridge, an ace, king, queen, jack, or ten especially of the trump suit; in some other games, an ace, king, queen or jack.


permanent

Used in English since the 15th century, from Middle English permanent, permanente, from Middle French permanent, from Latin permanēns, from permaneō (“I stay through”).

(collectible card games) A card whose effects persist beyond the turn on which it is played.


meld

The verb is probably borrowed from Dutch melden (“to announce; to let (someone) know, report; (specifically) to declare in a card game”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *melþōn (“to announce, declare; to inform”), and Proto-Indo-European *meldʰ- (“to ask; to pray; to speak”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
cognates
* Dutch melden
* Old English meldian (“to announce, declare; to inform, notify”) (Middle English melden (“to accuse, inform against; to announce, declare”))

cog

The realization that Istra was in the room made him forget most of his melds at pinochle; […]

1914 February, Sinclair Lewis, “He is Blown by the Whirlwind”, in Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 231:

(card games) Especially in games of the rummy family: a combination of playing cards which is announced or played to score points.

အထွေ

combination of playing cards announced or played to score points


hijack

Possibly from a blend of highway + jacker (“one who holds up”) (1915).

blend

(poker slang) Preflop, the position two before the dealer.


dealer

From Middle English delare, from Old English dǣlere, from Proto-West Germanic [Term?]. By surface analysis, deal + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Deeler, West Frisian dieler, Dutch deler, German Teiler, Swedish delare.

That used car dealer gave me a great deal on my 1962 rusted-out Volkswagen bug!

One who deals in goods, especially automobiles; a middleman.

تَاجِر

one who deals in things, e.g. automobiles


precision

en-noun

precision (countable and uncountable, plural precisions)

/pɹɪˈsɪʒ.ən/

[pɹɪˈsɪʒ.n̩]

tarkkuus

the consistency of a number in a linear equation

(bridge) A bidding system that makes use of many artificial bids to describe a hand quite precisely.


movement

movement (countable and uncountable, plural movements)

From Middle English mevement, from Old French movement (modern French mouvement), from movoir + -ment; cf. also Medieval Latin movimentum, from Latin movere (“move”). Doublet of moment and momentum. In this sense, displaced native Old English styring, which led to Modern English stirring.
Morphologically move + -ment.

eye movement desensitization and reprocessing

(bridge) A pattern in which pairs change opponents and boards move from table to table in duplicate bridge.


continue

en-verb

continue (third-person singular simple present continues, present participle continuing, simple past and past participle continued)

continues (present singular third-person)
continuing (participle present)
continued (participle past)
continued (past)

terminate

antonym(s) of “transitive, proceed with, to prolong”

From Middle English continuen, from Old French continuer, from Latin continuāre. Displaced native Old English þurhwunian.

(poker slang) To make a continuation bet.


card game

(games) Any of the many games played with playing cards.

kaartspeletjie

any of very many games played with playing cards


bye

Variant form of by, from Old English bī (“being near”).


kitty

(poker, slang) In a home game, a small, specified amount taken from each pot to pay the host's expenses.

(card games) A set of additional cards dealt face down in some games.

pöytäkortit

card games: set of additional cards dealt face down in some games


declare

declare (third-person singular simple present declares, present participle declaring, simple past and past participle declared)

declares (present singular third-person)
declaring (participle present)
declared (participle past)
declared (past)
declare (infinitive)

From Middle English declaren, from Old French declarer, from Latin dēclārō (“to make clear”), from dē- + clārus (“clear”).

декларирам

to make outstanding debts, e.g. taxes, payable.

(card games) To show one's cards in order to score.


plain

en-adj

plain (comparative plainer, superlative plainest)

plainer (comparative)
plainest (superlative)

From Middle English pleyn, borrowed from Anglo-Norman pleyn, playn, Middle French plain, plein, and Old French plain, from Latin plānus (“flat, even, level, plain”).


lily

From Middle English lilie, from Old English lilie, from Latin līlia, plural of līlium, from Ancient Greek λείριον (leírion). See there for more.

(card games, usually in the plural) A royal spade in auction bridge.


baccarat

First attested in the 19th century. Borrowed from French baccarat, baccara, likely named after the French town Baccarat (noted for glassmaking) in Grand Est, of ultimately unclear and debated origin (first attested in 1291. (uncertain)). If by some Vulgar Latin *Bacchara, the town is possibly named from Latin Bacchi ara ("altar of Bacchus"; the original pagan reference of the name was forgotten), name of an ancient Roman castellum, of which there remains a relic called the "Tower of Bacha" on the heights of Deneuvre, from whence Baccarat is an ancient suburb. Other hypotheses have also been suggested, including descent from Celtic.
Probably linked to Provençal baccara, although if the town etymology is correct, this may present some geographic difficulty.

unk

unclear and debated origin

(card games) A card game resembling chemin de fer with many forms - usually entailing the player(s) betting against two or three hands dealt - also bearing some similarities to blackjack.

Albert Guillaume
Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle
baccarat


villain

Probably from Middle English vilein, from Old French vilein (modern French vilain), in turn from Late Latin villanus, meaning serf or peasant, someone who is bound to the soil of a Latin villa, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul. Doublet of villein.

Count Dracula
Darth Vader
Dracula
Harry Potter
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth
Macbeth (character)
Othello
Sauron
Star Wars
The BFG
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Merchant of Venice

Let's discuss how to play if you are the chip leader (that is, if you have more chips than all the villains).

(poker) Any opponent player, especially a hypothetical player for example and didactic purposes. Compare: hero (“the current player”).


chemin de fer

/ʃəˌmæ̃ də ˈfɛə/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-chemin de fer.wav

Borrowed from French chemin de fer (literally “railway”), from being a faster variant of baccarat.

bor

Bond had spent the last two afternoons and most of the nights at the Casino, playing complicated progression systems on the even chances at roulette. He made a high banco at chemin-de-fer whenever he heard one offered.

1953, Ian Fleming, chapter 4, in Casino Royale, page 23:

The person who left at 1:00 is either Alice or the woman who played chemin de fer (9), so in either case she is a woman.

2005, Mark Zegarelli, Poker Logic Puzzles, →ISBN, page 73:

“Come on,” Kit motioning her with his head over to a chemin-de-fer table

2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, pages 603–4:


strip

en-verb

strip (third-person singular simple present strips, present participle stripping, simple past and past participle stripped)

strips (present singular third-person)
stripping (participle present)
stripped (participle past)
stripped (past)

From Middle English strepen, strippen, from Old English strīepan (“plunder”), from Proto-Germanic *strēpōną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter(h₁)- (“to be stiff; be rigid; exert”). Probably related to German Strafe (“deprivation, fine, punishment”).

cog

(transitive, bridge) To remove all cards of a particular suit from another player. (See also strip-squeeze.)

изтеглям

bridge: to remove all cards of a particular suit from another player


blackjack

en-noun

blackjack (countable and uncountable, plural blackjacks)

→ Polish: blackjack

(card games) A common gambling card game in casinos, where the object is to get as close to 21 without going over.

廿一點

card game (the game where the aim is to score as close to twenty-one as possible without going over that amount)

(card games) A hand in the game of blackjack consisting of a face card and an ace.

(card games) A variant of switch where each player is initially dealt the same number of cards, usually seven, and when one player plays a black jack the player whose turn comes next has to pick up that many cards, unless they play a red jack (as this normally cancels a black jack).

(card games) A variant of hearts where the Jack of Spades is the penalty card.


busted flush

I thought I'd draw another spade, but I ended up with a busted flush.

(UK, poker) A potential flush which ultimately was not filled.


nuts

If the board is 237QA, all of spades, the nuts is 45 of spades.

If the board is 4444J, the nuts is any hand with an ace.

(poker) An unbeatable hand; the best poker hand available.


miss

en-verb

miss (third-person singular simple present misses, present participle missing, simple past and past participle missed)

misses (present singular third-person)
missing (participle present)
missed (participle past)
missed (past)

desc

→ Kashubian: zmisowac (Canada, United States)

From Middle English missen, from Old English missan (“to miss, escape the notice of a person”), from Proto-West Germanic *missijan, from Proto-Germanic *missijaną (“to miss, go wrong, fail”), from Proto-Indo-European *meytH- (“to change, exchange, trade”). Cognate with West Frisian misse (“to miss”), Dutch missen (“to miss”), German missen (“to miss”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish miste (“to lose”), Swedish missa (“to miss”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic missa (“to lose”).

inh

you don't miss the water till the well runs dry

you miss 100% of the shots you don't take

you never miss the water till the well runs dry

you never miss the water until the well runs dry

Player A: J7. Player B: Q6. Table: 283. The flop missed both players!

(poker, said of a card) To fail to help the hand of a player.


miss

en-noun

miss (countable and uncountable, plural misses)

(card games) In the game of three-card loo, an extra hand, dealt on the table, which may be substituted for the hand dealt to a player.


maverick

Named after Texan lawyer and politician Samuel Maverick (1803–1870), who refused to brand his cattle. For probable origin and meaning, see Maverick.
The poker noun sense (“a queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em”) may be from the theme song of the US Western television series Maverick (1957–1962), which says of the eponymous protagonist that “[g]amblin’ is his game” and that he is “livin’ on jacks and queens”.

named-after

(poker slang) A queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.


goulash

en-noun

goulash (countable and uncountable, plural goulashes)

Borrowed from Hungarian gul(y)ás, short for gulyás hús (“beef or lamb soup made by herdsmen while pasturing”), from gulyás (“herdsman”) + hús (“meat”). First attested in English 1866.

(bridge) A style of play in which the cards are not thoroughly shuffled between consecutive deals, so as to make the suits less evenly distributed between the players.


Go Fish

(card games) A children's card game in which players ask each other for cards of a particular rank, requiring them to "fish" in a pool of additional cards if they do not have the requested card.


gin rummy

What is your latest foible? / Is gin rummy more exquisite? / Is skiing more enjoyable?

1943, “I'm A Stranger Here Myself”, Ogden Nash (lyrics), Kurt Weill (music):

That's what I was thinking, but then I remembered he'd never been to sea, that I'd only started calling him The Captain because he wore a captain's hat during a game of gin rummy at his grandmother's apartment one time while she was out of town.

2013, Iris Smyles, Iris Has Free Time, Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, →ISBN, page 118:

(card games) A card-holding game and variant of rummy.


phantom

From Middle English fantome, fanteme, from Old French fantosme, fantasme, from Latin phantasma (“an apparition, specter; (in Late Latin also) appearance, image”), from Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “phantasm, an appearance, image, apparition, specter”), from φαντάζω (phantázō, “I make visible”). Doublet of phantasm.

der

(bridge) A placeholder for a pair of players when there are an odd number of pairs playing.


FPS

(poker) Initialism of fancy play syndrome, the act of playing in a reckless way.


pinochle

en-noun

pinochle (countable and uncountable, plural pinochles)

Perhaps from German Binokel, French binocle (literally “pince-nez”), a related card game.

He remembered all—every pinochle game, every woman, every sad night.

1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:

(card games) A card game, similar to bezique.

(card games) A meld of the jack of diamonds and queen of spades in that card game.


cribbage

cribbage (countable and uncountable, plural cribbages)

Named from the "crib" consisting of certain cards laid aside by each player.

His solicitude for Sir Horace, his brother-in-law, was extreme, and he passed hours in the sick youth’s chamber, playing at cribbage, or dominos, or indulging the young baronet’s remarkable turn for cutting out trees, animals, or birds with tiny scissors on delicate paper.

1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter V, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 105:

How much more real this dream was than that they should go back to the house where the sleeping children lay and where Stanley and Beryl played cribbage.

1918, Katherine Mansfield, Prelude, Selected Stories, Oxford World's Classics paperback 2002, page 114

"No one remembers cribbage now," […]

1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 31

(card games) A point-counting card game for two players, with variants for three or four players; the cribbage board used for scoring to 61 or 121 points in numerous small increments is characteristic.

A variety of pocket billiards that, like the card game, awards points for pairs that total 15. A player who pockets a ball of a particular number must then immediately pocket the companion ball that brings the number to 15.

A point scored in this variety of pocket billiards.


pone

(card games, chiefly US) The last player to bet or play in turn.


butcher

→ Hindi: बूचड़ (būcaṛ)

→ Swahili: bucha

→ Urdu: بُوچَڑ (būcaṛ)

From Middle English bocher, boucher, from Old French bouchier (“goat slaughterer”), from Old French bouc (“goat”), from Medieval Latin buccus (“he-goat”), of Germanic origin. More at English buck.

der

Coordinate term: bitch

(colloquial, archaic, card games) A king playing card.


kings

(poker slang) A pair of kings (playing cards).


kings

(card games) A drinking game that uses playing cards.


forcing

(bridge) Pertaining to a bid which requires partner to continue bidding rather than pass.


gin

en-noun

gin (countable and uncountable, plural gins)

Abbreviation of geneva, alteration of Dutch genever (“juniper”) from Old French genevre (modern French genièvre), from Vulgar Latin ziniperus, from Latin iūniperus (“juniper”). Hence gin rummy (first attested 1941).

Johnny Chan held jack-nine, and hit gin when a queen-ten-eight board was dealt out.

(poker) Drawing the best card or combination of cards.


Boston

→ Abenaki: Pastonki, pastoni

→ Klamath-Modoc: basdin

→ Lushootseed: pastəd

→ Mohawk: Wáhston

The US city is named after the English town (from which several prominent colonists had come), which itself is sometimes said to be named as a contraction of Botolph's town or Botolph's stone (the name Botolph itself coming from Old English Botwulf, from boda + wulf). However, this is uncertain.

(card games) An eighteenth-century trick-taking card game for four players, with two packs of fifty-two cards each.


Boston

(card games) In the card game spades, a bid of all 13 tricks.


slough

en-verb

slough (third-person singular simple present sloughs, present participle sloughing, simple past and past participle sloughed)

sloughs (present singular third-person)
sloughing (participle present)
sloughed (participle past)
sloughed (past)

From Middle English slogh, slugh, slouh, from Proto-Germanic *sluk-, perhaps related to *sleupaną (“to slip, sneak”) (compare Gothic 𐍃𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌰𐌽 (sliupan)).
Akin to Middle Low German slô (“sheath, skin on a hoof”). Perhaps also related with Old Saxon slūk (“snakeskin”), Middle High German slūch, whence German Schlauch (“waterskin, hose”).

cog

East sloughed a heart.


grand slam

(bridge) The bid and winning of all the tricks during the play of one hand.

grand chelem

(bridge) the winning of all the tricks during the play of one hand


donk

(poker, slang, derogatory) A poor player who makes mistakes.


donk

en-verb

donk (third-person singular simple present donks, present participle donking, simple past and past participle donked)

donks (present singular third-person)
donking (participle present)
donked (participle past)
donked (past)


canine

From Latin canīnus (“of dogs, dog-like”), from canis (“dog”). Compare French canin.

You have been dealt King-9 unsuited ("canine") in your pocket.

2005, Dennis Purdy, The Illustrated Guide to Texas Hold'em, page 270:

(poker slang) A king and a nine as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em due to phonetic similarity.


open-ended

The flop of 3-6-Q gave Brunson an open-ended straight draw with his 4-5 of hearts.

(poker) Of a straight draw, made up of four consecutive cards, thus able to be completed by either of two ranks of card.


quad

Shortened, via clipping or abbreviation, from various English terms. Ultimately related to Latin quattuor (“4”); compare quadri-, quadruple.
The typography senses are from the abbreviation quad. for obsolete quadrat; the keyboard command comes from the verb sense.

Both players had four of a kind. A had quad fours; B had quad deuces.

2001, Alfred Alvarez, Poker: Bets, Bluffs and Bad Beats, page 90:

Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).

(poker slang, attributive) Of or relating to quads (four of a kind).


shove

shove (third-person singular simple present shoves, present participle shoving, simple past shoved or (obsolete) shave, past participle shoved or (obsolete) shoven)

shoves (present singular third-person)
shoving (participle present)
shoved (past)
shave (obsolete past)
shoved (participle past)
shoven (obsolete participle past)

From Middle English schoven, shoven, schouven, from Old English sċūfan, from Proto-West Germanic *skeuban, from Proto-Germanic *skeubaną, from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-.
See also West Frisian skowe, Low German schuven, Dutch schuiven, German schieben, Danish skubbe, Norwegian Bokmål skyve, Norwegian Nynorsk skuva; also Lithuanian skùbti ‘to hurry’, Polish skubać ‘to pluck’, Albanian humb ‘to lose.'

(poker, by ellipsis) To make an all-in bet.


opener

オープナー

baseball pitcher who starts the game, but is planned to have a short outing

(card games) The player who starts the betting.

(card games, in the plural) Cards of sufficient value to enable a player to open the betting.

avauskortti

openers: cards of sufficient value to enable a player to open the betting


follow suit

follow suit (third-person singular simple present follows suit, present participle following suit, simple past and past participle followed suit)

follows suit (present singular third-person)
following suit (participle present)
followed suit (participle past)
followed suit (past)

(card games) To play a card of the same suit as the previous or leading card.


walking stick

(card games, slang) A playing card with the rank of seven.

seiska

slang: playing card with the rank of seven


Mexican standoff

en-noun

Mexican standoff (plural Mexican standoffs)

Mexican standoff
Reservoir Dogs
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

1876 US.
Three-way gun standoffs, popularized in spaghetti westerns such as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966), have come to be called Mexican standoffs, though this usage appears to date to the 1990s, notably in reference to Reservoir Dogs (1992); earlier usage refers to this as a “three-way standoff” or “triangular standoff”.

(slang) A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.

(slang, poker) A pot that is split among the players because of a tie.


suicide king

So called because in common depictions, the king of hearts appears to be stabbing himself in the head with his sword.

When Henry played poker, he liked to declare suicide kings wild, as he felt it lent him an air of sophistication.

Bayr laid the card down on top of the cowboy's. “Suicide king,” he said softly, touching the king of hearts' sword with his forefinger.

2008 April 30, Connie Bailey, “Fancy Pants”, in Know When to Hold'em: A Dreamspinner Press Anthology, Frisco: Dreamspinner Press, →ISBN, page 115:

(card games, slang) A king of hearts in a deck of playing cards.


blue peter

The flag, serving as a signal of recall for departure, was used by the British Navy from 1777, and the name “blue peter” had become common by the end of the 18th century. An all-blue flag had earlier seen use for the same purpose by the Dutch East India Company. While “blue” obviously refers to the dominant colour of the flag, the origin of the second part of the term, “peter”, is unknown. Often said to be a corruption of “blue repeater”, there is actually no signal flag that goes by that designation. The use of the flag to spell the letter “P” dates from 1857 and so cannot have played a role in the origin of the term.
The whist play, introduced by Lord Henry Bentinck, was named by him after the flag.

(card games, intransitive) In whist, a play that calls for trumps by throwing away a higher card of a suit while holding a lower one.


blue peter

en-verb

blue peter (third-person singular simple present blue peters, present participle blue petering, simple past and past participle blue petered)

blue peters (present singular third-person)
blue petering (participle present)
blue petered (participle past)
blue petered (past)

(card games, intransitive) In whist, to play a blue peter.


huddle

From Middle English *hudelen, alteration (due to hudels, hidels (“hiding place”), see hiddle) of *huderen, hoderen (“to cover; press together; huddle”), a frequentative form of Middle English huden, hiden (“to hide”), equivalent to hide + -le and/or hide + -er. Compare Low German huderken (“to brood; coddle; nurse; lull children to sleep”).

cog

(bridge) A hesitation during play to think about one's next move.


huddle

en-verb

huddle (third-person singular simple present huddles, present participle huddling, simple past and past participle huddled)

huddles (present singular third-person)
huddling (participle present)
huddled (participle past)
huddled (past)

(bridge, intransitive) To hesitate during play while thinking about one's next move.


patience

en-noun

patience (usually uncountable, plural patiences)

Sranan Tongo: pasensi

From Middle English pacience, from Old French pacience (modern French patience), from Latin patientia (“suffering; endurance, patience”), from patiens, present active participle of patior (“suffer, experience, wait”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hurt”). Displaced native Old English ġeþyld.

der

Any of various card games that can be played by one person. Called solitaire in the US and Canada.


tens

teens · twenties · thirties · forties · fifties · sixties · seventies · eighties · nineties

Gay Nineties · Naughty Nineties · Roaring Twenties · Dirty Thirties · Swinging Sixties


sledge

From Middle English slegge, from Old English sleċġ (“sledgehammer; mallet”), from Proto-Germanic *slagjǭ. Cognate with Dutch slegge (“sledge”), Swedish slägga (“sledge”), Norwegian Bokmål slegge (“sledge”), Norwegian Nynorsk sleggje (“sledge”), Icelandic sleggja (“sledge”), German Schlägel.

[based on information from Major Hill, Master of the Silver Mills, in 1662, describing silver mining in Cardiganshire] They dig the Oar thus; One holds a little Picque, or Punch of Iron, having a long Handle of Wood which they call a Gad; Another with a great Iron Hammer, or Sledge, drives it into the Vein.

1737, J. Ray, A Collection of English Words Not Generally Used, With their Significations and Original in two Alphabetical Catalogues; the one, of such as are proper to the Northern, the other, to the Southern Counties. With an Account of the preparing and refining such Metals and Minerals as are found in England.:

Sledge hammers are only used for heavy-duty persuading when working on vehicles or machinery.

2006, Tom Benford, Garage And Workshop Gear Guide:

A heavy, long handled maul or hammer used to drive stakes, wedges, etc.


sledge

Dialectal Dutch sleedse, from Middle Dutch sleedse, from the root of sled.

A card game resembling all fours and seven-up; old sledge.


sledge

en-verb

sledge (third-person singular simple present sledges, present participle sledging, simple past and past participle sledged)

sledges (present singular third-person)
sledging (participle present)
sledged (participle past)
sledged (past)

From Sledge (“a surname”), influenced by sledgehammer. First attested in the 1960s in Australian English.
According to Ian Chappell, originated in Adelaide during the 1963/4 or 1964/5 Sheffield Shield season. A cricketer who swore in the presence of a woman was taken to be as subtle as a sledgehammer (meaning unsubtle) and was called “Percy” or “Sledge”, from singer Percy Sledge (whose song When a Man Loves a Woman was a hit at the time). Directing insults or obscenities at the opposition team then became known as sledging.

Batteries of fast bowlers softened batsmen up with short-pitched bowling, while fielders tried to disturb their concentration with a running commentary of insults commonly known as sledging.

1998, Larry Elliott, Daniel E Atkinson, The Age of Insecurity:

Then, all these...government legislators...would be able to totally concentrate on their roles and functions, without being entangled in interparty sledging and squabbles.

2004, Dhanjoo N. Ghista, Socio-Economic Democracy and the World Government: Collective Capitalism, Depovertization, Human Rights, Template for Sustainable Peace:

The 2000 Code of the Laws of Cricket includes new anti-sledging provisions.

2005, David Fraser, Cricket and the Law: The Man in White Is Always Right:

"Bloody hell even their sledging is now shite!!!" he sledged.

2013 November 6, Marina Hyde, “Whatever Shane Warne says, the Ashes sledgers need to raise their game”, in The Guardian:

it would be eccentric to change governments when we're delivering so much and when we have such a vast mandate and when we're actually only a handful of points behind in the polls, even in mid-term, after quite a few months of pretty relentless sledging and when the economic scene is so difficult domestically and internationally.

7 July 2022, Boris Johnson, resignation speech:

(chiefly cricket, Australia) To verbally insult or abuse an opponent in order to distract them (considered unsportsmanlike).


sledge

Now that's what I call a sledge.

1990, Ashes: Battles and Bellylaughs, Byron Bay: Swan Publishing, page 173:

(chiefly cricket, Australia) An instance of sledging.


wired

en-adj

wired (comparative more wired, superlative most wired)

more wired (comparative)
most wired (superlative)

(poker slang) Being a pair in seven-card stud with one face up and one face down.

I was dealt three of a kind, wired.

(poker slang) Being three of a kind as the first three cards in seven card stud.


chevalier

From Middle English chivaler or chevaler (also shyvalere while code-switching), from Anglo-Norman chevaler or chivaler, later refashioned after French chevalier, from Late Latin caballārius (“horseman”), from Latin caballus (“horse”). Doublet of caballero and cavalier.

(card games) In tarot cards, the card between the valet and the dame.


in the dark

(poker slang) Without looking at one's hole cards, thus not knowing what they are.


tip one's hand

en-verb

tip one's hand (third-person singular simple present tips one's hand, present participle tipping one's hand, simple past and past participle tipped one's hand)

tips one's hand (present singular third-person)
tipping one's hand (participle present)
tipped one's hand (participle past)
tipped one's hand (past)

(card games) In card playing, to accidentally reveal one's cards or hand.


cowgirl

(card games, slang) A playing card of queen rank.


razz

(poker) A version of seven-card stud where the worst poker hand wins (called lowball).


widow

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English widwe, from Old English widuwe, from Proto-West Germanic *widuwā, from Proto-Germanic *widuwǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰéwh₂, possibly from *h₁weydʰh₁-, *widʰ- (“to separate, split, cleave, divide”), whence also wood from Old English widu, wudu.
Cognates include German Witwe, Dutch weduwe, Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐍉 (widuwō), Old Irish fedb, Latin vidua, Old Church Slavonic въдова (vŭdova), Sanskrit विधवा (vidhavā) and Persian بیوه (bive, bêva), Middle Persian wēwag, Avestan viðavā- "widow" .

(card games) An additional hand of cards dealt face down in some card games, to be used by the highest bidder.


bump

en-noun

bump (countable and uncountable, plural bumps)

From Early Modern English bump (“a shock, blow from a collision”), probably of North Germanic origin; compare Danish bump (“a thump”), Danish bumpe (“to thump”), Old Danish bumpe (“to strike with a clenched fist”), all probably of imitative origin.
Apparently related to Middle English bumben, bummen (“to make a hollow noise”), Dutch bommen (“to hum, buzz”), German Low German bumsen (“to bump, push”), German bummen (“to hum, buzz”), Icelandic bumba (“drum”). More at bum, bumble. Compare also bomb.

onom

imitative

cog

(card games) In the game of khanhoo, the act of claiming a newly discarded card when it is not one's turn, permitted when one can use the card to form a meld other than a sequence.


bump

en-verb

bump (third-person singular simple present bumps, present participle bumping, simple past and past participle bumped)

bumps (present singular third-person)
bumping (participle present)
bumped (participle past)
bumped (past)
Lighter (canonical)
1917-1919: An Historical Glossary” (canonical)
volume 47 (canonical)
number 1 (canonical)
page 24 (canonical)

onom

imitative

(card games) In the game of khanhoo, to claim a newly discarded card when it is not one's turn, permitted when one can use the card to form a meld other than a sequence.


unblock

en-verb

unblock (third-person singular simple present unblocks, present participle unblocking, simple past and past participle unblocked)

unblocks (present singular third-person)
unblocking (participle present)
unblocked (participle past)
unblocked (past)

(intransitive, card games) In whist, to throw away a high card so as not to interrupt one's partner's long suit.


commerce

en-noun

commerce (countable and uncountable, plural commerces)

Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium. Doublet of comess.

(card games) An 18th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.


primero

Borrowed from Spanish primera, feminine form of primero (“first”), from Latin prīmārius. See premier.

I did Sir Thomas, and left him at Primero

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

An card game resembling poker, dating back at least to the 16th century.


bourré

Joann Guidos, the proprietor at Kajun's, called out for a game of bourré and they all dumped their money on a table and sat down and let the cards and liquor flow.

2005, Chris Rose, 1 Dead in Attic, Simon & Schuster, published 2015, page 14:

(card games) A card game traditionally played in Louisiana, US.


kickback

kickback (countable and uncountable, plural kickbacks)

(uncountable, bridge) In contract bridge, an ace asking convention initiated by the first step above four of the agreed trump suit.


shuffle

Originally the same word as scuffle, and properly a frequentative of shove.

(by extension, music) A rhythm commonly used in blues music. Consists of a series of triplet notes with the middle note missing, so that it sounds like a long note followed by a short note. Sounds like a walker dragging one foot.

(dance) A dance move in which the foot is scuffed across the floor back and forth.


shuffle

en-verb

shuffle (third-person singular simple present shuffles, present participle shuffling, simple past and past participle shuffled)

shuffles (present singular third-person)
shuffling (participle present)
shuffled (participle past)
shuffled (past)

shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic

I myself, […] hiding mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle.

c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

To change one's position; to shift ground; to evade questions; to resort to equivocation; to prevaricate.

to shuffle money from hand to hand

To shove one way and the other; to push from one to another.


buy-in

en-noun

buy-in (countable and uncountable, plural buy-ins)

(poker) A tournament where a player must purchase all of his or her chips before the tournament starts.

When tournament players are eliminated but remain eager to win back their buy-in, side games often develop and upstage tournament play with limits exceeding those in the tournament.

1983, David M. Hayano, Poker faces: the life and work of professional card players:

(poker) The amount that a player buys in for


according to Hoyle

Named after Edmond Hoyle (1672–1769), an early author on the subject of card gaming.

This isn't a country where things are cut and dried, and done according to Hoyle.

1902, Gilbert Parker, chapter 11, in Donovan Pasha and Some People of Egypt:

When you're lost in the Wild, and you're scared as a child, / And Death looks you bang in the eye, / And you're sore as a boil, it's according to Hoyle / To cock your revolver and . . . die.

1912, Robert W. Service, “The Quitter”, in Rhymes of a Rolling Stone:

The opening round of the Presidents' Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament went according to Hoyle.

2007 February 22, Phil Axelrod, “District Spotlight: PAC men's basketball follows form”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 2008-08-08:

(idiomatic) In strict accordance with the rules, especially of card games; in the proper or expected manner.


flush

en-adj

flush (comparative flusher, superlative flushest)

flusher (comparative)
flushest (superlative)

Same as Etymology 3, according to the American Heritage Dictionary.

With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:


flush

→ French: flush

→ Japanese: フラッシュ (furasshu)

→ Korean: 플러쉬 (peulleoswi)

→ Portuguese: flush

Probably from Middle French flus (“flow”), cognate with flux.

(poker) A hand consisting of all cards with the same suit.


crib

en-noun

crib (countable and uncountable, plural cribs)

From Middle English crib, cribbe, from Old English crib, cryb, cribb, crybb (“couch, bed; manger, stall”), from Proto-West Germanic *kribbjā, from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ (“crib, wickerwork”), from Proto-Indo-European *grebʰ-, *gerbʰ- (“bunch, bundle, tuft, clump”), from *ger- (“to turn, twist”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Kräbbe, Krääb, Krääf (“crib”), West Frisian krêbe (“crib”), Dutch krib (“crib, manger”), German Krippe (“rack, crib”), Danish krybbe (“crib”), Icelandic krubba (“crib”). Doublet of crèche. The sense of ‘stealing, taking notes, plagiarize’ seems to have developed out of the verb.
The criminal sense may derive from the 'basket' sense, circa the mid 18th century, in that a poacher could conceal poachings in such a basket (see the 1772 Samuel Foote quotation). The cheating sense probably derives from the criminal sense.

пищов

notes concealed by a student to aid him/her in test or examination

“May we play crib, Mrs. Radford?” he asked.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Chapter 12”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

The cards were brought and Fanny played at cribbage with her aunt till bed-time; and as Sir Thomas was reading to himself, no sounds were heard in the room for the next two hours beyond the reckonings of the game—And that makes thirty-one, four in hand and eight in crib.

1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 239:

(cribbage) The cards discarded by players and used by the dealer.


sideboard

Cards can only be exchanged between the playing deck and the sideboard on a one-to-one basis between duels or matches, and any number of cards, up to fifteen, can be exchanged at once.

1995, Larry W. Smith, Learn Magic Cards, →ISBN, page 80:

Many of your best chances to overcome opposing decks lie in the development of a strong sideboard.

1995, George Baxter, Larry W. Smith, Mastering magic cards, →ISBN:

If you plan on playing in tournaments, you'll want to construct a sideboard for your deck.

2006, John Kaufeld, Jeremy Smith, Trading Card Games For Dummies, →ISBN, page 61:

They can have a 15-card sideboard or no sideboard. The sideboard can be used to replace cards in the deck after each game.

2010, Kelly Nicole Czarnecki, Gaming in Libraries, →ISBN, page 54:

(collectible card games) A set of cards that are separate from a player's primary deck, used to customize a match strategy against an opponent by enabling a player to change the composition of the playing deck.


sideboard

en-verb

sideboard (third-person singular simple present sideboards, present participle sideboarding, simple past and past participle sideboarded)

sideboards (present singular third-person)
sideboarding (participle present)
sideboarded (participle past)
sideboarded (past)

Hopefully you now have a strong grasp on how to sideboard effectively.

This will cause an opponent to suffer from a number of his newly sideboarded cards, now useless to him.

1996, George Baxter, Tables of Magic, page 43:

Frantic Purification can be sideboarded to destroy an enchantment, but it shouldn't be drafted unless you have no choice.

2002, Steve Frohnhoefer, Michael Searle, Magic: The Gathering Online : Prima's Official Strategy Guide:

(collectible card games) To include (a card) in one's sideboard.


straight flush

en-noun

straight flush (plural straight flushes)

→ Portuguese: straight flush

(poker) A hand that is both straight (the cards are all in sequence) and flush (the cards are all of the same suit).


bower

From Middle English bour, from Old English būr, from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būrą (“room, abode”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Búur (“storage room, utility room; cage”), German Bauer (“birdcage”), Old Norse búr (“cage”) (Danish bur, Norwegian Bokmål bur, Swedish bur).

cog

Give me my lute in bed now as I lie, / And lock the doors of mine unlucky bower.

c. 1572, George Gascoigne, A Lady being both wronged by false suspect, and also wounded by the durance of hir husband, doth thus bewray hir grief.:

A bedroom or private apartments, especially for a woman in a medieval castle.

будоар

a woman's bedroom or private apartments, especially in a medieval castle

(ornithology) A large structure made of grass, twigs, etc., and decorated with bright objects, used by male bower birds during courtship displays.

Laube

(ornithology) A large structure made of grass and bright objects


bower

The bower aims his display straight at the dominant figure, who may reciprocate with a milder version of the same action.

1977, Desmond Morris, Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behavior, page 144:


bower

One who plays any of several bow instruments, such as the musical bow or diddley bow.


bower

(falconry) A young hawk, when it begins to leave the nest.


sit out

en-verb

sit out (third-person singular simple present sits out, present participle sitting out, simple past and past participle sat out)

sits out (present singular third-person)
sitting out (participle present)
sat out (participle past)
sat out (past)

(poker) To be away from the table in the midst of an ongoing game, thus automatically placing one's forced bets and otherwise folding every hand when it is one's time to act.


cooler

(poker, gambling, colloquial) A cold deck.

(poker) A loss suffered while holding a hand which is ordinarily strong, especially one which involves the loss of many chips.


Heinz

From the H. J. Heinz Company's "57 Varieties" slogan.

(poker slang) A five and a seven as starting cards in Texas hold 'em


takeout double

(bridge) A double, usually indicating strength and a desire to play the hand; partner is expected to "take out" by making a bid.


euchre

en-noun

euchre (countable and uncountable, plural euchres)

Possibly from German Juckerspiel, name of an eighteenth-century Alsatian card game, itself apparently a compound of Jucker (“joker?”, may be dialectal) + Spiel (“game”).

(card games) A trump card game played by four players in two partnerships with a reduced deck of 24 cards.


chicane

chicane (countable and uncountable, plural chicanes)

(card games, chiefly bridge) The holding of a hand without trumps, or the hand itself.


Ajax

THE road north took us to Ajax, Louisiana, more of a crossroads than an actual town. The RV park sat just a minute or so from the interstate and miles from much else; a saw mill near the highway and a diner across the road were the only...

2016, Suzi Parron, Following the Barn Quilt Trail, Ohio University Press, →ISBN:

Natchitoches Parish
Natchitoches Parish#English

An unincorporated community in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.


soda

soda (countable and uncountable, plural sodas)

(card games) The first card in the dealing box in the game of faro, which is discarded to leave 51 cards in play.


Uno

From Italian uno (“one”) or Spanish uno (“one”); players must call "uno" when down to their last card. Doublet of one.

A card game similar to crazy eights, played with specially printed cards that have colours instead of suits.


bolivia

bolivia (countable and uncountable, plural bolivias)

(uncountable, card games) A card game similar to rummy and canasta.

(card games) A meld of seven wild cards in said card game.


rummy

rummy (usually uncountable, plural rummies)

Unknown, with much speculation. Perhaps related to rum via poker slang, or ultimately from German Ruhm.

A card game with many rule variants, conceptually similar to mahjong.


peter

en-verb

peter (third-person singular simple present peters, present participle petering, simple past and past participle petered)

peters (present singular third-person)
petering (participle present)
petered (participle past)
petered (past)

Clipping of blue peter (“play a high card to call for trump”). See further etymology there.

clipping

(card games, intransitive) Synonym of blue peter; to call for trump by throwing away a high card while holding a lower one.


kilter

Probably a variant of dialectal kelter (“odds and ends; litter, rubbish”); further etymology unknown.

(card games, chiefly poker) A hand of playing cards which is useless.


heads-up

There were only two of us, so we started playing heads-up.

There are seven players on the table. Five folded, the remaining two played heads-up until the showdown.

(poker) Involving two players. (usually said when there are only two players in the table; or, when all players except two folded)


napoleon

en-noun

napoleon (countable and uncountable, plural napoleons)

/nəˈpəʊlɪən/

Borrowed from French Napoléon (“given name, usually in reference to Napoleon Bonaparte”). In reference to coins, via French napoléon (“(slang) a coin that originally had the appearance of Napoleon's face in the obverse”). In reference to guns and possibly cards, in reference to Napoleon III.

bor

(card games, uncountable) A 19th-century five-card trick-taking game simplified from euchre.

(card games, uncountable) Clipping of double napoleon: a form of patience.


K

Abbreviations.
# (stenoscript) Abbreviation of counter, prefix counter-, sequence contr.

ng

prefix <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">counter-</i>, sequence contr.

(card games, chess) Abbreviation of king.


Q

en-noun

Q (countable and uncountable, plural Qs)

(card games, chess) Abbreviation of queen.


three card brag

(chiefly British) A card game somewhat like a simplified form of poker, and one of poker's several ancestors


running flush

A running flush can only be beaten by a prile.

(card games) a hand containing three cards of consecutive value and the same suit in three card brag; equivalent to a straight flush in poker


kicker

Jill's hand was two pair, aces and sevens, with a king kicker.

(poker) An unpaired card which is part of a pair, two pair, or three of a kind poker hand.


high five

high five (countable and uncountable, plural high fives)

From high + five. The five refers to the five fingers of each hand.

(card games, uncountable) The game of cinch.


monte

monte (countable and uncountable, plural montes)

Borrowed from Spanish monte (“mountain”): in the sense of the card game, referring to the stack of unplayed cards. Doublet of mount.

(uncountable, card games) A game in which three or four cards are dealt face-up and players bet on which of them will first be matched in suit by others dealt.


AF

AF (countable and uncountable, plural AFs)

aggression factor
aggression factor#English

(poker) Initialism of aggression factor.


mulligan

mulligan (countable and uncountable, plural mulligans)

Attested since the 1930s in the sense “chance to re-take a golf stroke”; probably from the name Mulligan, after a golfer who replayed a stroke. See Wikipedia for more information.

uusi käsi

card games: opportunity to draw a new initial hand

Pokemon has a mulligan rule: if you have no Pokemon in your opening hand, you show it to your opponent and redraw. You may also take a mulligan, I believe, if your opening hand has no basic power cards.

2009 February 17, LSJ, “Re: Why doesn't VTES have a mulligan rule?”, in rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (Usenet), message-ID <soDml.10826$hc1.10451@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com>:

April 1997 introduced the modern 'Paris mulligan' rule; previously a mulligan required either all land or no land in the hand and could be taken only once, now the mulligan can be taken as many times as desired with any hand, but reduces starting hand size by one each time the mulligan is taken.

2009 June 27, Zoe Stephenson, “Magic: The Gathering Rules FAQ, v4.03 (part 2)”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (Usenet), message-ID <games/magic-t-g/rules/part2_1246075912@rtfm.mit.edu>:

(collectible card games) An opportunity (sometimes penalized) for a player to reshuffle their cards and draw a new initial hand at the beginning of a game.


PLO

Palestine Liberation Organization
w:Palestine Liberation Organization

Initialism of Palestine Liberation Organization.


wildcard

German wildcard Sabine Lisicki conquered her nerves to defeat France's Marion Bartoli and take her amazing Wimbledon run into the semi-finals.

2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport:

(sports, card games) Alternative form of wild card.

шабло́н

derived adjective may be used in phrases


talon

From Middle English talon, taloun, from Old French talon (“heel, spur”), from Medieval Latin tālōnem, from Vulgar Latin *tālōnis, from Latin tālus (“ankle”).

(card games) The remaining stock of undealt cards.


royalty

royalty (countable and uncountable, plural royalties)

→ Danish: royalty

→ Italian: royalty

→ Norwegian Bokmål: royalty

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: royalty

→ Swedish: royalty

From Middle English royaltee, roialtee, royalte, from Old French roialté, roiauté, realté (compare earlier Old French realted (“realm, kingdom”)), from Vulgar Latin *rēgālitās, from Latin rēgālis, equivalent to royal + -ty.

(poker, slang) A king and a queen as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.


tarot

tarot (countable and uncountable, plural tarots)

Borrowed from French tarot, from Italian tarocco. Compare tarok, German Tarock.

1987, Hans Hahn, “Logic, Mathematics, and Knowledge,” in Unified Science, Brian McGuiness ed.
[…] it is not that I cannot convince him, but that I must refuse to go on talking with him, just as I shall refuse to go on playing tarot with a partner who insists on taking my fool with the moon.

1996, Jan Potocki, The Manuscript Found in Saragossa http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0140445803&id=lRbXDsA9u4AC&pg=PA333&lpg=PA333&sig=s0cNY_83AgaK_TWOEA1qpv95tuQ
They took me to her and then we all came back to the portal, where we started playing tarot.
As we were engrossed in this game, which requires quite a lot of attention, a well-dressed man appeared and seemed to examine us all closely, first one then another.

2001, Donald Davidson, Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0199246297&id=hGm9Dj5OmF8C&pg=PA265&lpg=PA265&sig=rjtFvOxVBgk1cro3fLQ5bLn9Eqw
In explaining what it is to play tarot we could not leave out of account the rules that define the game; […]

(singular or plural) A card game played in various different variations.

Any of the set of 78 playing cards (divided into five suits, including one of permanent trumps), often used for mystical divination.


takeout

takeout (countable and uncountable, plural takeouts)

Japanese: テークアウト (tēkuauto)

(bridge) A double of an opponent's bid, intended to invite one's partner to compete in the auction, rather than to penalise one's opponents.


add-on

(poker) Additional chips that can be purchased at specific times in tournament play.


-ton

From Middle English -ton, -tone, -tune, from Old English -tūn, derived from Old English tūn (“town”). Doublet of town.

singleton

(mathematics, bridge) A set of specific objects or persons.


double up

en-verb

double up (third-person singular simple present doubles up, present participle doubling up, simple past and past participle doubled up)

doubles up (present singular third-person)
doubling up (participle present)
doubled up (participle past)
doubled up (past)

(poker, by extension, intransitive) To double one's amount of chips by winning an all-in pot.


tilt

tilt (third-person singular simple present tilts, present participle tilting, simple past and past participle tilted)

tilts (present singular third-person)
tilting (participle present)
tilted (participle past)
tilted (past)

From Middle English tilte, from Old English *tyltan, *tieltan (“to be unsteady”), related to the adjective tealt (“unsteady”), from Proto-West Germanic *talt, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *del-, *dul- (“to shake, hesitate”), see also Dutch touteren (“to tremble”), North Frisian talt, tolt (“unstable, shaky”). Cognate with Icelandic tölt (“an ambling pace”).
The nominal sense of "a joust" appears around 1510, presumably derived from the barrier which separated the combatants, which suggests connection with tilt "covering". The modern transitive meaning is from 1590; the intransitive use appears 1620.

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-tilt.wav

The D.F.S. industry is still inextricably tied up in those poker roots. Players talk about "tilting" because of "variance," especially when a "fish" puts in a "donkey" lineup that ends up going crazy. (In regular American English, this translates roughly to "I am really mad because some idiot punched in some random lineup that ended up catching every conceivable break and beating me.")

2016 January 6, Jay Caspian Kang, “How the Daily Fantasy Sports Industry Turns Fans Into Suckers”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-28:

Even the best players can tilt which can cause their performance to drop significantly. Players often tilt when they're on a losing spree or frustrated with the game.

2022 September 2, Gökhan Çakır, Harrison Thomas, “How to get better at VALORANT”, in Dot Esports, archived from the original on 2023-03-15:

This was yet another surprising momentum swing, with Nepomniachtchi seemingly having addressed his tendency to tilt after a loss, and with Ding crashing back down to Earth after having squared the ledger in the previous game. Is this a new Nepomniachtchi, capable of digging deep and avenging losses?

2023 April 19, Ben Tippett, “Haymakers Are Flying At The World Chess Championship”, in Defector, archived from the original on 2023-06-05:

(originally poker, video games, chess, slang) To enter a state of frustration and worsened performance resulting from a series of losses.


tilt

to go on tilt

In his landmark book, The Mental Game of Poker, sports psychologist Jared Tendler defines "tilt" as "anger + bad play". In short, you lose your mental equilibrium and start playing below your best, often making big mistakes. Tilt is caused by many different factors and Tendler defines seven types of tilt.

2014 September 10, Amit Varma, “Magnus Carlsen's weakness”, in The Economic Times, Mumbai: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2014-09-19:

In his follow-up video below, ScrapComputer goes into a long list of suggestions for stopping and avoiding tilt while you play League of Legends.

2016 February 26, Philip Kollar, “What is 'tilt' in League of Legends, and how can you avoid it?”, in Polygon, archived from the original on 2023-04-01:

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result can drive you insane, especially League of Legends. As you keep losing, you become tilted and get frustrated. No matter how mechanically gifted you are, it can't help ameliorate tilt.

2019 October 15, Hawken Miller, “How to quickly climb the League of Legends ranked ladder”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-17:

As long as you know that being consistent and sticking to a strategy in the long run, will win you money, you can avoid tilt and negative emotions.

2022 March 16, “Online poker: from beginner to pro”, in Times of Malta, archived from the original on 2022-04-21:

(uncountable, poker, video games, chess, slang) A state of frustration and worsened performance resulting from a series of losses.


palooka

H. L. Mencken
Ham Fisher
Joe Palooka
The American Language

Used in the US since the 1920s, originally primarily of boxers. Popularized by Jack Conway of Variety, who also popularized baloney and bimbo. Further popularized by Ham Fisher in his comic strip Joe Palooka about a boxer (published in newspapers since 1930, particularly popular in 1940s).

unk

Used

But [Jack] Dempsey against some palooka who had been press agented into greatness and into the form of a Dempsey menace — that would pack any outdoor arena.

Butch: Lookin' at somethin', friend?
Vincent: I ain't your friend, palooka.

1994, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction:

(US, boxing, bridge, etc) Someone incompetent or untalented.


reshuffle

en-verb

reshuffle (third-person singular simple present reshuffles, present participle reshuffling, simple past and past participle reshuffled)

reshuffles (present singular third-person)
reshuffling (participle present)
reshuffled (participle past)
reshuffled (past)

To shuffle something again, especially playing cards.


tapped

en-adj

tapped (comparative more tapped, superlative most tapped)

more tapped (comparative)
most tapped (superlative)

(card games, board games) Of a card or playing piece: used up for the current turn.


back door

The flop had the ace of spades, queen of spades, and two of diamonds, and I was holding the king of spades and the three of hearts. I bet big, hoping for a jack and a ten to make my back door straight-draw, or a spade to make my back door flush-draw. But when the turn card was the five of clubs, I had to fold.

(poker, of a draw) Requiring consecutive cards on the turn and river to be achieved.


eldest

(card games) (of a player) Receiving cards from the dealer first, before any other players.

Each player draws a card, and the lowest becomes eldest hand.

2003, The Card Game Set, Thunder Bay Press:

(card games) (of a hand) Having higher, or superior cards.


highlander

From the tagline "There can be only one" of the film Highlander (1986).

I have a blue/white highlander deck (every card is unique, including the lands) and I would like some help tuning it.

1995 May 18, Nick Clifton, “Help with a Highlander Deck”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet), message-ID <NICKC.95May18164750@betty.perihelion.co.uk>:

As an example, the "Highlander" tournaments (only one of any particular card) that have been springing up have proven to be a good way to re-energize the tournament scene for some games.

1996 October 18, Scott Schultz, “New Tournament Styles”, in rec.games.trading-cards.misc (Usenet), message-ID <3267BF69.1FAA@ceweekly.com>:

One of my favorite Highlander decks is listed below.

2000 June 2, End User, “Re: Type I Highlander - What to play?”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet), message-ID <3938182E.357BF7F4@tivoli.com>:

(collectible card games, often capitalized) A game format in which players are allowed no more than one of any card (except basic resource cards) in their decks.


bullets

(poker slang) A pair of aces as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em


tutor

From Middle English tutour, from Old French tuteur (French tuteur), from Latin tūtor (“a watcher, protector, guardian”), from tueor (“protect”); see tuition.

der

(UK) A university officer responsible for students in a particular hall.


tutor

Ellipsis of Demonic tutor, name of an early Magic: The Gathering card with this effect.

here are some tutor cards i thought would be interesting.

1998 April 5, kc...@pcmagic.com, “tutor ideas”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc (Usenet), retrieved 2019-05-09, message-ID <<35271e02.1847089@news.pcmagic.net>>:

(collectible card games) A card that allows one to search one's deck for one or more other cards.


tutor

en-verb

tutor (third-person singular simple present tutors, present participle tutoring, simple past and past participle tutored)

tutors (present singular third-person)
tutoring (participle present)
tutored (participle past)
tutored (past)

Any instant that you move to the board can *only* be tutored for with Cunning Wish.

2002, David Seiler, “Type I -- What do you think about Wishes and how do you plan to break them?”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet):

(collectible card games) To fetch a card from one's deck.


rebuy

A type of poker tournament that allows players to purchase more chips during the course of the tournament.


lowball

American railroad term that described one of two positions of the ball of a ball signal. Compare highball.

deuce-to-seven lowball
deuce-to-seven lowball

(poker) A form of poker in which the lowest-ranking poker hand wins the pot. Usually the ace is the lowest-ranking card, straights and flushes do not count making the best possible hand being A, 2, 3, 4, 5 regardless of suits (in contrast to deuce-to-seven lowball.)


trips

(poker, slang) Three of a kind, especially if one of the three cards is in one's hand and the other two are on the board. Compare set (“three of a kind, especially with one card on the board and the other two in one's hand”).


preempt

preempt (third-person singular simple present preempts, present participle preempting, simple past and past participle preempted)

preempts (present singular third-person)
preempting (participle present)
preempted (participle past)
preempted (past)

(bridge, intransitive) To make a preemptive bid at bridge.


finesse

en-noun

finesse (countable and uncountable, plural finesses)

From Middle English finesse (“degree of excellence; (of metal) fineness, purity”), from Middle French finesse, Old French finesse (“fineness; delicacy; slenderness”), from fine, fin (“fine, thin”) (from Latin fīnis (“end”); compare Middle English fīn (“of superior quality; precious, valuable; admirable, pleasing; pure, refined; fineness, purity; delicate, exquisite, fine; sharp, thin”)) + -esse (suffix forming nouns describing the condition of being something).
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

The Finesse Proper.—When, upon the invite of your partner, you refuse to force with your strongest card, or one of equal strength, you are in the case of the finesse proper. Holding the ace, queen, and ten, and taking with the queen, is a simple finesse; that is, a finesse to the king.

1850, “Short Whist: Its System and Science”, in Henry G[eorge] Bohn, editor, The Hand-book of Games: Comprising New or Carefully Revised Treatises on Whist, Piquet, Ecarté, Lansquenet, Boston, Quadrille, Cribbage, and Other Card Games; […] (Bohn’s Scientific Library), London: Henry G[eorge] Bohn, […], →OCLC, part IV (Whist by the Editor), page 185:

Here we are going to examine finesses from a negative standpoint. Those players who take finesses wherever and whenever they appear will seldom give any thought to what might happen if the finesse were to lose. And this is why taking or shunning a finesse is an option which shouldn't be exercised without much prior thought.

2013 October 22, Joe Blatnick, “Finesses (One More Time)”, in Bridge: A Thinker’s Game: How You Think is More Important than What and Thinking Comes before Doing, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 134:

(countable, card games) In bridge, whist, etc.: a technique which allows one to win a trick, usually by playing a card when it is thought that a card that can beat it is held by another player whose turn is over.


finesse

en-verb

finesse (third-person singular simple present finesses, present participle finessing, simple past and past participle finessed)

finesses (present singular third-person)
finessing (participle present)
finessed (participle past)
finessed (past)

In the first round of a suit, you should generally, / 8. PLAY YOUR HIGHEST CARD THIRD HAND. / a. In order to strengthen your partner. You presume that he leads from his strong suit, and wants to get the winning cards of it out of his way[…]; you, therefore, do not finesse[…], but play your highest, remembering that you play the lowest of a sequence[…]. With ace, queen (and, of course, ace, queen, knave, &c., in sequence) you do finesse, for, in this case, if the king is in the fourth hand, it must make, unless single, which is very improbable; and by putting on the ace, you make the king good, if against you.

1864, Cavendish [pseudonym; Henry Jones], “The Third Hand”, in The Laws and Principles of Whist Stated and Explained, and Its Practice Illustrated on an Original System, by Means of Hands Played Completely through, 7th edition, London: Bancks Brothers […], →OCLC, part I (General Principles), page 41:

(intransitive, card games) To attempt to win a trick by finessing.

The ace is certainly to your left, you therefore finesse the ten, for if your left-hand adversary holds ace and knave he must make them both; but otherwise, your ten forces the ace, and you are left with the best.

1864, Cavendish [pseudonym; Henry Jones], “The Third Hand”, in The Laws and Principles of Whist Stated and Explained, and Its Practice Illustrated on an Original System, by Means of Hands Played Completely through, 7th edition, London: Bancks Brothers […], →OCLC, part I (General Principles), page 42:

Again, no amount of writing, and apparently no amount of practice, will induce a player to see that it is not always right to finesse an Ace Queen. We have seen all the trumps out. We have led a suit (Hearts) of which our partner had Ace, Queen, and two long Clubs; he finessed the Queen, and did not make his two Clubs. […] Twice in a fortnight have we have the Ace Queen finessed when two cards only remained in each hand and one trump was in.

1874 March 1, “Whist Jottings—Stupidity”, in The Westminster Papers. A Monthly Journal of Chess, Whist, Games of Skill, and the Drama, volume VI, London: W. Kent & Co., […], and W. W. Morgan, […]; Edinburgh: J. Menzies & Co.; Dublin: McGlashan & Gill, →OCLC, page 235:

(transitive, card games) To play (a card) as a finesse.


all in

By betting his last $100, John was all in.

(poker) Having no further stake to wager, but remaining active in a hand.


all in

(poker) A hand where at least one player bets all of his or her chips.

全押

hand where the player bets all of his chips

Since she was against an all in, Jill had no reason to bet.


nines

He drew nines from the deck.


graveyard

/ˈɡɹeɪvˌjɑɹd/

From grave + yard. Compare West Frisian begraafplak (“graveyard”), Dutch begraafplaats (“graveyard”), Norwegian gravplass (“graveyard”).

kirkegård

final storage place for collections of things no longer used

Certain cards place other cards here because such cards might have abilities deemed too strong if they sent them to the graveyard instead.

2006, John Kaufeld, Jeremy Smith, Trading Card Games For Dummies, →ISBN, page 49:

If you want to be tricky, though, Rapid Decay can be a flying elbow drop out of nowhere for a surprise win against graveyard manipulation decks; they will always see a Beetles coming, remember.

2006, Michael J. Flores, Deckade: 10 Years of Decks, Thoughts, and Theory!, →ISBN, page 235:

When a player does discard or use a card or when a creature also died or a spell gets destroyed, that card gets placed into the player's graveyard.

2015, Kinetik Gaming, Magic the Gathering Game Guide (Unofficial), →ISBN:

(figuratively, by extension) A final storage place for collections of things that are no longer useful or useable.

(collectible card games) The discard pile, in some trading card games.


covered

John has $100 on the table, while Jill only has $75. John has Jill covered.

(poker) Than whom another player has more money available for betting.


Black Friday

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From black (“bad; ill-omened; marked by disaster”). Friday is an ill-omened day according to ancient superstition, so a Friday that was darkened by another ill-omen (such as being the 13th) or an actual disaster became known as "Black Friday". Philadelphia police applied the term to the day after Thanksgiving because the large number of people out shopping made traffic chaotic. Later, PR efforts purposely invented the incorrect, more positive "etymology" (which is a very popular urban legend and false etymology that was even in Wiktionary from 2008 to 2015) that the name was given because this day is supposedly the first day of the year on which retailers typically posted profits ('in the black') rather than losses ('in the red').

en:any of certain historically bad Fridays

Any Friday literally or figuratively darkened by catastrophe, or the anniversary thereof.

(Internet slang, poker, historical) The conclusion of United States v. Scheinberg in 15 April 2011, after which major online poker sites stopped offering real money play to their United States customers.


go out

go out (third-person singular simple present goes out, present participle going out, simple past went out, past participle gone out)

goes out (present singular third-person)
going out (participle present)
went out (past)
gone out (participle past)

Leon made two canastas, then went out by melding treys.

(intransitive, card games) To discard or meld all the cards in one's hand.


trump

Possibly from French triomphe (“triumph”) or Old French triumphe. If so, it is a doublet of triumph and thriambus. Compare German Trumpf.

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Diamonds were declared trump(s).

And now her Heart with Pleasure jumps,
She scarce remembers what is Trumps.

1730, Jonathan Swift, “Death And Daphne,”, in Some Verse Pieces:

(card games) The suit, in a game of cards, that outranks all others.

He played an even higher trump.

(card games) A playing card of that suit.


trump

trump (third-person singular simple present trumps, present participle trumping, simple past and past participle trumped)

trumps (present singular third-person)
trumping (participle present)
trumped (participle past)
trumped (past)

He knew the hand was lost when his ace was trumped.

He lost his money at whist after dinner, and actually trumped his partner’s highest spade.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 52, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

(transitive, card games) To play on (a card of another suit) with a trump.

չախել

to play a trump on a card of another suit

(intransitive, card games) To play a trump, or to take a trick with a trump.

тегля коз

to play a trump, or to take a trick with a trump


misère ouvert

(Whist and other card games) a bid to lose every trick, with no trumps and the bidder's hand placed face-up on the table after the first trick


misère

Borrowed from French misère. Doublet of misery.

(card games, whist and others) A bid to lose every trick, or the majority of tricks, with no trumps.


pass out

pass out (third-person singular simple present passes out, present participle passing out, simple past and past participle passed out)

passes out (present singular third-person)
passing out (participle present)
passed out (participle past)
passed out (past)

(bridge, transitive) To end (a round) by having passes as the first four bids.


back-to-back

(poker slang) Synonym of wired (“being a pair in seven card stud with one face up and one face down”).


fourchette

(card games) The combination of the card immediately above and the one immediately below a given card.


gleek

(slang) A geek who is involved in a glee club, choir, or singing.


turbo

From turbocharged (“increased power”). From the action of a turbocharger, which increases the speed of an automobile through the increase in power of an engine.

This is a turbo tournament: the blinds increase every 5 minutes! Level 1 = 150/300; level 2 = 200/400; etc.

(said of a poker tournament) With rapidly-increasing blind levels.


depot

From French dépôt, from Old French depost, from Medieval Latin dēpositum, from Latin, participle of dēpōnō, dēpōnere. Doublet of deposit.

(card games) The tableau; the area where cards can be arranged in solitaire or patience games.


renounce

From Old French renoncier (French renoncer), from Latin renuntiare.


renounce

renounce (third-person singular simple present renounces, present participle renouncing, simple past and past participle renounced)

renounces (present singular third-person)
renouncing (participle present)
renounced (participle past)
renounced (past)

(intransitive, card games) To fail to follow suit; playing a card of a different suit when having no card of the suit led.


trull

From French tous les trois (“all three”).

(card games) A set of three special trump cards used in some Tarock games, having a higher value than the other trumps.


combo

Personally I'd like to see an environment where all the major archetypes, control, beatdown, and combo are viable.

1999, Steven Merritt, “[ISSUE] An alternative to Banning, increase minimum deck size”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet):

Whenever I play (I play D&D alot^([sic]) too) I always play combo.

1999, michele oasheim, “The Funnest Combo Decks”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet):

(gaming) Effective combination of gameplay elements.

(especially collectible card games) A strategy aiming to win by playing a specific combination of cards (or similar), often in a single turn.


youngest

(card games) Receiving dealt cards last, i.e. immediately before the next deal to the eldest.


poker face

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Though he thought he had a perfect poker face, he had a number of tells his opponents soon learned.

(poker) An impassive facial expression cultivated to prevent other players from determining whether one's actions in the game are the result of a quality hand, or of bluffing.

撲克臉

impassive facial expression preventing determining whether one's actions in the game are the result of a quality hand or of bluffing


lanterloo

en-noun

lanterloo (countable and uncountable, plural lanterloos)

From French lanturlu, originally the refrain of a 16th-century song.

(uncountable, card games) A trick-taking card game popular in 17th-century England, where each player is dealt three or five cards.


overfull

[…] let's say the flop comes 9-9-8, with the open pair on top. One player has J-T-9-8 for the overfull—9s full of 8s for the nut full house—while another player has 8-8-7-6 for 8s full of 9s and the "underfull". The player with the underfull is both getting smashed and drawing dead.

2008, Jeff Hwang, Pot-Limit Omaha Poker: The Big Play Strategy, Kensington Publishing Corp., →ISBN, page 5:

(poker) A full house that beats someone else's full house.


go it alone

en-verb

go it alone (third-person singular simple present goes it alone, present participle going it alone, simple past went it alone, past participle gone it alone)

goes it alone (present singular third-person)
going it alone (participle present)
went it alone (past)
gone it alone (participle past)

/ˈɡəʊ ɪt əˈləʊn/

/ˈɡoʊ ɪt əˈloʊn/

When the trump suit [in euchre] has been settled, the player who has named it (the maker) has the right to go it alone, but he must announce his intention to do so before a card has been led. His partner places his cards face downwards on the table, and takes no active part in the hand. The maker (he is the only one of the four who can go it alone) plays his hand against the two opponents in partnership.

2014, “Games for Three or More”, in Sarah Tomley, editor, The Card Games Bible: Over 150 Games and Tricks, London: Hamlyn, →ISBN, pages 125–126:

(card games) To play a hand without the assistance of one's partner.


full house

→ Japanese: フルハウス (furu hausu)

→ Portuguese: full house

→ Russian: фул-ха́ус (ful-xáus)

This loss of interest, hair, and enterprise — / Ah, if the game were poker, yes, / You might discard them, draw a full house! / But it's chess.

1954, Philip Larkin, Continuing to Live:

(poker) A hand that consists of three of a kind and a pair.


in spades

From the card game of bridge, in which spades is the highest suit. Perhaps influenced by phrases with similar meaning, in spadefuls or in spate.

Last year we harvested almost no potatoes, but this year we're getting them in spades.

"He is three times that bad in spades," I said. "He ain't washed his socks in four months for one thing," […]

1954, Richard [Pike] Bissell, High Water (Atlantic Monthly Press Book), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, OCLC 760577; republished St. Paul, Minn.: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987, ISBN 978-0-87351-221-3, page 115

Character the hotel has in spades. It begins at the parking lot, where bison roam.

1993 June 23, Patricia Leigh Brown, “Yellowstone’s landmark in logs”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2016-04-28:

This caution hurt JPMorgan's profits at the time but paid off in spades in 2009, as the bank earned $8.5 billion in the first three quarters.

2009 December 8, Justin Fox, “The top 10 everything of 2009: Top 10 best business deals: 2. JPMorgan Chase and the deals it didn't do”, in Time, archived from the original on 2016-04-23:

(idiomatic) In large quantities; to a high degree; to excess, without restraint.


tuck box

(card games) A carton for storing a set of playing cards.


on air

→ Japanese: オンエア (on'ea)

Broadcasting sense derived from early use of radio, literally sending the transmission on the air waves

(bridge, of a trick) Won with a high card though capturing only small cards.


retract

retract (third-person singular simple present retracts, present participle retracting, simple past and past participle retracted)

retracts (present singular third-person)
retracting (participle present)
retracted (participle past)
retracted (past)
retract (infinitive)

From Middle French rétracter (“to annul; to reconsider; to withdraw”) (modern French rétracter (“to retract; to contract”)), and from its etymon Latin retractāre, the present active infinitive of retractō (“to retract, withdraw; to annul, revoke; to detract from; to undertake again; to reconsider; to remember; to decline, refuse”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + tractō (“to drag, haul, tug”) (from trahō (“to drag, pull; to extract, withdraw”) (see further at etymology 1) + -tō (frequentative suffix forming verbs)).

cog

(games) Originally in chess and now in other games as well: to take back or undo (a move); specifically (card games) to take back or withdraw (a card which has been played).

(card games, archaic) To change one's mind after declaring an intention to make a certain move.


lead out

en-verb

lead out (third-person singular simple present leads out, present participle leading out, simple past and past participle led out)

leads out (present singular third-person)
leading out (participle present)
led out (participle past)
led out (past)

(poker slang) To bet into a pot postflop from the first betting position.


muggins

en-noun

muggins (countable and uncountable, plural mugginses)

Origin unknown. Sense 'fool' originally British slang of 1770s, probably an extension of earlier mug (“fool”). Game senses perhaps from surname Muggins.

(cribbage) The act of stealing another player's points because they either mispegged or counted up incorrectly.


sultan

sultan (countable and uncountable, plural sultans or (rare, only in certain senses) salateen)

→ Chinese: 蘇丹／苏丹 (sūdān)

From French sultan, from Ottoman Turkish سلطان (sultan), from Arabic سُلْطَان (sulṭān, “strength, authority, ruler”). (compare Hebrew שִׁלְטוֹן (shiltón) and Hebrew סוּלְטָן (sultán)). Doublet of soldan.

der

(card games, uncountable) A variant of solitaire, played with two decks of cards.


digger

From Middle English dyggar, equivalent to dig + -er.
In the sense of "Australian soldier", attributed to the considerable time that soldiers spent digging trenches during World War I.

You′ve tried the supposedly sure method of squirting the digger with water from a hose, and that hasn′t worked.[…]This step will discourage 99 percent of the diggers.

1997, Barbara J. Wrede, Civilizing Your Puppy, page 75:

Most retrievers are not inveterate diggers — that′s a trait usually reserved for other breeds like wire-haired terriers and schnauzers.

2005, Gary R. Sampson, Dick Wolfsie, Dog Dilemmas: Simple Solutions to Everyday Problems, page 130:

A successful Australian digger — successful, not merely in siftings and washings, but bearing the title, and its best credentials, of a “nuggetter” − came down from Forest Creek recently and took up his abode in a low lodging-house in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne.

1853, Charles Dickens, editor, Household Words, volume 21, page 64:

Proofs of the presence of the white man are found all over the Territory in the shape of old bouilli tins, &c., and often when out after a strayed horse, I have imagined myself to be in wilds untrodden except by the foot of the blackfellow, but the sight of an unassuming empty sardine tin would remind me that the ubiquitous digger had been there first.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 342:

(Australia, obsolete) A gold miner, one who digs for gold.

Costume played a key part in his differentiation from British soldiers as the Digger uniform came to embody Australian versions of masculinity and mateship.

1998, Helen Gilbert, Sightlines: Race, Gender, and Nation in Contemporary Australian Theatre, page 191:

For many, the congruencies of the Anzac legend and the diggers who served in Vietnam were slight, too slight, and the legend seemed unable to accommodate them.

2002, Jeff Doyle, Jeffrey Grey, Peter Pierce, Australia's Vietnam War, page xxiii:

Like many other Queensland communities, the workers from the North Ipswich Railway Workshops chose a statue of a soldier, or digger, to honour their fellow workers.

2004, Lisanne Gibson, Joanna Besley, Monumental Queensland: Signposts on a Cultural Landscape, page 99:

(Australia, informal) An Australian soldier.

(Australia, dated, by extension) a friendly term of address, especially to a man.


ombre

(archaic) A large Mediterranean food fish, Umbrina cirrosa


five card stud

(poker) Alternative spelling of five-card stud


five-card stud

(poker) a simple form of stud poker where each individual receives five cards


stud poker

(poker) Any of several versions of poker in which some cards are dealt face-down and some face-up.


up the ante

en-verb

up the ante (third-person singular simple present ups the ante, present participle upping the ante, simple past and past participle upped the ante)

ups the ante (present singular third-person)
upping the ante (participle present)
upped the ante (participle past)
upped the ante (past)

With three aces and two jacks, he thought it was safe to up the ante.

(poker) To raise the stakes of a hand of poker.


King Kong

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(poker slang) Two kings as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.


re-entry

en-noun

re-entry (countable and uncountable, plural re-entries)

(card games, bridge and whist) The act of retaking the lead by winning a trick.

(card games, bridge and whist) A re-entry card.


showdown

showdown (countable and uncountable, plural showdowns)

(poker) The final round in a poker match, where the all remaining players' cards have to be put down on the table and shown.


blocker

→ Polish: bloker, blokers

From Middle English blocker, blokker, bloker, blokkere, equivalent to block + -er.

Agent noun of block (“obstruct or prevent”); something that blocks something else.

(card games) A playing card, needed by one player, that is held by another.


sandbag

(poker) A deceptive play whereby a player with a strong hand bets weakly or passively.


sandbag

en-verb

sandbag (third-person singular simple present sandbags, present participle sandbagging, simple past and past participle sandbagged)

sandbags (present singular third-person)
sandbagging (participle present)
sandbagged (participle past)
sandbagged (past)

Some felt that Roberts was sandbagging, because his mastery of the 250s wasn't really showing in practice or the heat.

1976, Cycle World Magazine, volume 15, number 1 & 2, page 83:

The sandbagging manager is similarly deceptive. He has mastered the art of seeming harmless and without power, but in reality he carries far more authority and clout than one would be led to believe.

1976, Richard H. Buskirk, Handbook of Managerial Tactics, Boston: Cahners Books, →ISBN, page 32:

When playing against a wild man, try to be in a position to pick off his bluffs without too many players remaining behind you who can benefit from the action by sandbagging (passing on big hands and waiting for “sport” to whoop up the betting).

1981, Nesmith C. Ankeny, Poker Strategy: Winning with Game Theory, New York: Basic Books, →ISBN, page 9:

Accordingly, we may establish as our principle that the time to sandbag is when you have three of a kind or better, when there are at least five players to act after you, and when your hand is made up of low cards.

1981, Oswald Jacoby, Oswald Jacoby on Poker, Garden City, N.Y.: Dolphin Books, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 36:

(figurative, intransitive, originally US) To conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent in order to gain an advantage; (originally poker) to pretend to have a weak hand, as a strategy.


suited

en-adj

suited (comparative more suited, superlative most suited)

more suited (comparative)
most suited (superlative)

a three-suited hand

(card games, in combination) Having the specified kind or number of suits.

Brunson has ace-king suited in the small blind

(poker, of two or more cards) Of the same suit.


powerhouse

A hand like A-2-3-4 is a powerhouse in Omaha/8, because it can easily make the best low hand and capture half the pot.

2011, Richard D. Harroch, Lou Krieger, Poker For Dummies:

(card games) A very good hand of cards, likely to win.


canasta

From Spanish canasta. The game originates from Uruguay.

“Do you know something, Fred?” she announced, “I won four dollars and eighty-five cents playing Canasta this afternoon.”
“Canasta!” exclaimed Mr. Grimes, “I didn′t know you could play that silly game.”

1951 July, Henry F. Tenney, “Per Stirpes and Not Per Capita: Or, What Your Clients Can Never Tell You”, in ABA Journal, page 492:

Imagine, first, two players who engage in a game of canasta according to a standard set of rules.[…]We may imagine, however, that at a certain moment the two canasta players cease to play canasta and start a discussion of the rules.

2004, Gregory Bateson, “15: A Theory of Play and Fantasy”, in Henry Bial, editor, The Performance Studies Reader, page 130:

Modern American Canasta is a younger cousin of the game of Canasta I explain here.

2011, Barry Rigal, Card Games For Dummies, unnumbered page:

(uncountable, games, card games) A card game similar to rummy and played using two packs, where the object is to meld groups of the same rank.

Groups of seven of a kind are called canastas, and before a player can go out he or his partner must have at least one canasta.

1949 December 19, “The Canasta Craze”, in Life (magazine), page 47:

(countable, card games) A meld of seven cards in a game of canasta.


chip in

en-verb

chip in (third-person singular simple present chips in, present participle chipping in, simple past and past participle chipped in)

chips in (present singular third-person)
chipping in (participle present)
chipped in (participle past)
chipped in (past)

He seemed to hesitate when he chipped in.

(intransitive, card games) To ante; to put into the pot the amount of chips or money required to continue.


lansquenet

en-noun

lansquenet (countable and uncountable, plural lansquenets)

Borrowed from French lansquenet, from German Landsknecht, from Lands (“of the land”) + Knecht (“servant”). Doublet of Landsknecht.

“I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

One could see part of the dimly lit court where under an enclosed poplar two soldiers on a stone bench were playing lansquenet.

And so it was over the game of lansquenet that I scored my first triumph.

1782, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, translated by Helen Constantine, Dangerous Liaisons, published 2007, page 196:

(uncountable) A gambling card game in which the dealer is given an initial card and the players another; cards are then turned up until the value (rank) of one of those cards is met.


vivant

(card games, obsolete) In mort, bridge, and similar games, the partner of dummy.


strip poker

A variant of poker where the loser removes his/her clothes.


straddle

en-verb

straddle (third-person singular simple present straddles, present participle straddling, simple past and past participle straddled)

straddles (present singular third-person)
straddling (participle present)
straddled (participle past)
straddled (past)

As a verb, attested since the 1560s. Most likely, an alteration of dialectal striddle. The noun is first attested in the 1610s.

(poker) To place a voluntary raise prior to receiving cards (only by the first player after the blinds).


straddle

(poker) A voluntary raise made prior to receiving cards by the first player after the blinds.

sokkokorotus

poker: raise made prior to receiving cards


whist

en-noun

whist (countable and uncountable, plural whists)

Alteration of whisk, perhaps so called from the notion of “whisking” up cards after each trick. Altered perhaps on assumption that the word was an interjection invoking silence, by influence of whist (“silent”).

Whist in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Any of several four-player card games, similar to bridge.


cowboys

(poker slang) A pair of kings as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.


pianola

(bridge) A hand that is easy to play, i.e. one that "plays itself".


under the gun

James will be under the gun for the first hand of the final table.

(poker) Of, pertaining to, or in the situation of first player to act on the first round of betting.


jamboree

/ˌdʒæm.bəˈɹiː/

Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell

Unknown 19th-century American slang. Chosen by Baden-Powell in 1919 for use in the Scout Movement.

(card games) In euchre: an undefeatable hand containing the five highest cards.


hold-up

→ Cebuano: holdap

→ French: hold-up

→ Tagalog: holdap

This was another hand on which a holdup caused declarer to lose control and to go down in a sensational way: […]

1974, Terence Reese, Master Play in Contract Bridge, page 75:

In a holdup, a player delays taking a trick until opponents' entries are reduced.

(bridge) The holding back of a card that could win a trick in order to use it later.


Benito

(card games) A card game played using a deck of 1990 MLB all-star playing cards.


fishhook

From Middle English fisch-hook, from Old English *fischōc (“fishhook”), equivalent to fish + hook. Cognate with Dutch vishaak (“fishhook”). In the sense of a jack (playing card), refers to the shape of the letter J on the card.

(slang, card games) A jack (type of playing card).


connector

(poker) Any of a group of cards of consecutive face value, useful in forming straights etc.


Cowboys

(poker slang) two kings as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em


upcard

(card games) In stud poker or blackjack, a playing card dealt face up and left on the table for others to see.

(card games) In rummy, the top card of the discard pile.


fill up

en-verb

fill up (third-person singular simple present fills up, present participle filling up, simple past and past participle filled up)

fills up (present singular third-person)
filling up (participle present)
filled up (participle past)
filled up (past)

(poker slang) To make a full house on the turn or the river.


mistigri

A trick-taking card game that dates back to the 18th century, somewhat resembling poker.


Broadway

From broad + way. The Old English words "brad weg" have been used to name wide roads and associated settlements for over a thousand years. Documented examples include Broadway, Somerset and Broadway, Worcestershire, England, which are listed in the Domesday Book census of 1086AD as "Bradewie" and "Bradeweia" respectively.
Sense of “government of Manitoba” is from the address of the Manitoba Legislative Building, on Broadway in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

(poker slang) The highest straight in poker, ace-king-queen-jack-ten.


Broadway

Broadway connectors

(poker slang) Of, or pertaining to, the cards that make up a Broadway straight.


weenie

Over and over again you'll dump a horde of weenies, and if you're^([sic]) opponent's^([sic]) too slow, he'll die right off the bat.

1996 February 20, ChrisMims [username], “White Hordes Part I: Extensive Pontifications”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet):

He was playing a monoblack weenie deck with 30+ creatures in it.

1997 February 10, Jesse Chounard, “Report: Pro Tour Paris PTQ”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet):

Most of the opponents^([sic]) quick creature removal will be taken out by the early flood of weenies.

1997 March 19, Craig Sivils, “Mono-Green, I don't get it.”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet):

(collectible card games, slang) A small creature which has a low cost to put into play, often used in a swarm with other such creatures.


shorthanded

en-adj

shorthanded (comparative more shorthanded, superlative most shorthanded)

more shorthanded (comparative)
most shorthanded (superlative)

Some of the ideas discussed in the Omaha eight-or-better section include general concepts, position, low hands, high hands, your starting hand, play on the flop, multi-way versus shorthanded play, scare cards, getting counterfeited, and your playing style.

1992, Ray Zee, High-Low-Split Poker, Seven-Card Stud and Omaha Eight-Or-Better for Advanced Players:

(poker, of a table) Having fewer than the standard number of players.


onside

With A-Q-10 opposite x-x-x, you have a 24% chance of three tricks, both missing honors being onside. You have a 52% chance of two tricks, with one honor onside and the other offside. FInally, you have a 24% chance of making only one trick, when both the king and the jack are offside.

2000, David Bird, Marc Smith, Planning the Play in Notrump, →ISBN, page 25:

(bridge) Favourably located, from the point of view of the player taking a finesse.


triomphe

From French triomphe (literally “triumph”).

(card games) A card game dating from the late 15th century.


wild card

(card games) A card that can be assigned any value or used to substitute for any needed card.


shootout

64 players entered the shooutout tournament, and were divided into eight tables of eight players each. The winner in each table went on to the final table, also consisting of eight players.

(poker) A multitable poker tournament in which only the last player on a table goes on to the next.


Sancho

(card games) The nine of trumps in the game of Sancho Pedro.


Blackwood

(bridge) A bidding convention in contract bridge, used to explore the partnership's possession of aces, kings and in some variants the queen of trumps, to judge more precisely whether slam is likely to be a good contract.


royal flush

→ German: Royal Flush

desc

→ Japanese: ロイヤルフラッシュ (roiyaru furasshu)

→ Portuguese: royal flush

(poker) An ace-high straight flush; a hand consisting of the cards A, K, Q, J, 10, of the same suit and the rarest and strongest hand in poker.


hockey stick

(poker) A playing card with the rank of seven.


shithead

en-noun

shithead (countable and uncountable, plural shitheads)

From shit + head, dysphemistically modeled after dickhead.

(uncountable, vulgar, card games) A card game, the aim of which is to lose one's cards.


mixed marriage

mixed marriage (countable and uncountable, plural mixed marriages)

(poker slang) A king and a queen of different suits as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em (see marriage (poker slang)).


rams

(card games) A French trick-taking card game related to nap and loo.


poker-faced

en-adj

poker-faced (comparative more poker-faced, superlative most poker-faced)

more poker-faced (comparative)
most poker-faced (superlative)

From the attitude necessary in the game of poker, since one is ill-advised to reveal delight at being dealt a winning hand lest other players decline to bet (or contrariwise, show disappointment at a poor hand if one is inclined to bluff).

John, in his most poker-faced manner, continued to explain the rules.

Wearing a poker face: studiously neutral in facial expression; giving nothing away.


quadrille

French, in sense of “group of knights”, from Spanish cuadrilla, diminutive of cuadra (“square”) (compare also cuadra (“four”)), from Latin quadra.

It now first struck her that she was selected from among her sisters as worthy of being the mistress of Hunsford Parsonage, and of assisting to form a quadrille table at Rosings, in the absence of more eligible visitors.

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 17, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

(card games) A Spanish trick-taking card game from the 1700s played with a 40-card deck.


solitaire

en-noun

solitaire (countable and uncountable, plural solitaires)

Borrowed from French solitaire, ultimately from Latin sōlitārius. Doublet of solitary.

Mr. Greenwood said yesterday that he always finished his work in a timely fashion, and that he played solitaire only when there was nothing else left to do, usually a few times a week or during lunch breaks.

2006 February 10, Winnie Hu, “Solitaire Costs Man His City Job After Bloomberg Sees Computer”, in The New York Times:

I learned to play solitaire as a child. Its advantages over other games were obvious, even then. No need to persuade a friend to play or explain the boring rules, no hard feelings when someone won or lost, no lessons required, no costly equipment to badger my parents into buying. I could play whenever and wherever I wanted. All I needed was a deck of cards.

2013 February 23, Francine Prose, “Solitaire: Me vs. Me”, in The New York Times:

(card games, chiefly US) Any of various card games that can be played by one person.


tenace

(bridge) An interrupted sequence of high cards of the same suit, such as the king and jack or the ace and queen.