game

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See also: -game

English

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Pronunciation

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  • enPR: gām, IPA(key): /ɡeɪm/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪm

Etymology 1

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From Middle English game, gamen, gammen, from Old English gamen (“sport, joy, mirth, pastime, game, amusement, pleasure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaman, from Proto-Germanic *gamaną (“amusement, pleasure, game", literally "participation, communion, people together”), from *ga- (collective prefix) + *mann- (“man”); or alternatively from *ga- + a root from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think, have in mind”).

Cognate with Old Frisian game, gome (“joy, amusement, entertainment”), Middle High German gamen (“joy, amusement, fun, pleasure”), Swedish gamman (“mirth, rejoicing, merriment”), Icelandic gaman (“fun”). Related to gammon, gamble.

Noun

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game (countable and uncountable, plural games)

  2. A playful or competitive activity.
    2. A playful activity that may be unstructured; an amusement or pastime.
      Synonyms: amusement, diversion, entertainment, festivity, frolic, fun, gaiety, gambol, lark, merriment, merrymaking, pastime, play, prank, recreation, sport, spree
      Antonyms: drudgery, work, toil
      Being a child is all fun and games.
    3. (countable) An activity described by a set of rules, especially for the purpose of entertainment, often competitive or having an explicit goal.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:game
      • 1983, Lawrence Lasker et al., WarGames:
        Joshua: Shall we play a game?
        David: ... Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?
        Joshua: Wouldn't you prefer a good game of chess?
        David: Later. Let's play Global Thermonuclear War.
        Joshua: Fine.
      Games in the classroom can make learning fun.
    4. (UK, in the plural) A school subject during which sports are practised.
      • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section III, page 26:
        From time to time tracksuited boys ran past them, with all the deadly purpose and humourless concentration of those who enjoyed Games.
    6. (countable) A particular instance of playing a game.
      Synonym: match
      Sally won the game.
      They can turn the game around in the second half.
      • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
        “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”.
    8. That which is gained, such as the stake in a game.
    10. The number of points necessary to win a game.
      In short whist, five points are game.
      See also: for the win
    12. (card games) In some games, a point awarded to the player whose cards add up to the largest sum.
    14. (countable) The equipment that enables such activity, particularly as packaged under a title.
      Some of the games in the closet we have on the computer as well.
    16. One's manner, style, or performance in playing a game.
      Study can help your game of chess.
      Hit the gym if you want to toughen up your game.
      • 1951, J. D. Salinger, chapter 11, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC:
        I played golf with her that same afternoon. She lost eight balls, I remember. Eight. I had a terrible time getting her to at least open her eyes when she took a swing at the ball. I improved her game immensely, though.
    18. (countable) Ellipsis of video game.
      • 2019 May 8, Jon Bailes, “Save yourself! The video games casting us as helpless children”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
        There’s a sense here, as well as in games such as Limbo, that we’re making ourselves experience our children’s reality, trapped in the chaos that the adults have created.
  4. (now rare) Lovemaking, flirtation.
  6. (slang) Prostitution. (Now chiefly in on the game.)
    • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v], lines 61–63:
      ſet them downe, / For ſlottiſh ſpoyles of opportunitie; / And daughters of the game.
    • 1755, Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Tobias Smollett, Don Quixote, Volume 1, I.2:
      [H]e put spurs to his horse, and just in the twilight reached the gate, where, at that time, there happened to be two ladies of the game [translating mugeres moças], who being on their journey to Seville, with the carriers, had chanced to take up their night's lodging in this place.
  8. (countable, informal, nearly always singular) A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.
    Synonym: line
    When it comes to making sales, John is the best in the game.
    He's in the securities game somehow.
  10. (countable, figuratively) Something that resembles a game with rules, despite not being designed.
    In the game of life, you may find yourself playing the waiting game far too often.
    • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 77, column 2:
      I ſee you ſtand like Grey-hounds in the ſlips, / Straying vpon the Start. The Game’s afoot:
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      “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”.
    • 2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18:
      Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too.
  12. (countable, military) An exercise simulating warfare, whether computerized or involving human participants.
    Synonym: wargame
  14. (countable) A questionable or unethical practice in pursuit of a goal.
    Synonyms: scheme, racket
    You want to borrow my credit card for a week? What's your game?
    • 1845, Blackwood Magazine:
      Your murderous game is nearly up.
    • 1902, George Saintsbury, Dryden, page 182:
      It was obviously Lord Macaulay's game to blacken the greatest literary champion of the cause he had set himself to attack.
  16. (uncountable) Wild animals hunted for food.
    The forest has plenty of game.
    • 1907, John Burroughs, Camping & Tramping with Roosevelt‎[2], Houghton Mifflin Company, →OCLC, pages 5–6:
      I had known the President several years before he became famous, and we had had some correspondence on subjects of natural history. His interest in such themes is always very fresh and keen, and the main motive of his visit to the Park at this time was to see and study in its semi-domesticated condition the great game which he had so often hunted during his ranch days; and he was kind enough to think it would be an additional pleasure to see it with a nature-lover like myself.
  18. (uncountable, informal, used mostly for men) The ability to seduce someone, usually by strategy.
    He didn't get anywhere with her because he had no game.
    • 1998, “She's Strange”, performed by Nate Dogg:
      She's strange, so strange, but I didn't complain / She said yes to me when I ran my game
  20. (uncountable, slang) Mastery; the ability to excel at something.
    • 1998, “He Got Game”, performed by Public Enemy:
      What is game? Who got game? / Where's the game in life, behind the game behind the game / I got game, she's got game / We got game, they got game, he got game
    • 2005, Kermit Ernest Campbell, Gettin' Our Groove on: Rhetoric, Language, and Literacy for the Hip Hop Generation, →ISBN, page 123:
      In the contemporary arts of the academic contact zone, I say African American students got game!
    • 2009, Michael Marshall, Bad Things, →ISBN, page 24:
      My dad had game at that kind of thing, and I spent long periods as a child watching him.
  21. (uncountable, archaic) Diversion, entertainment.
    • 1611, Joseph Hall, “Epistle VIII. To E.B. Dedicated to Sir George Goring.”, in Epistles […], volume III, London: […] [William Stansby and William Jaggard] for Samuell Macham, […], →OCLC, 5th decade, pages 95–96:
      To ſet the minde on the racke of long meditation (you ſay) is a torment: to follow the ſwift foote of your hound alday long, hath no wearineſſe: what would you ſay of him that finds better game in his ſtudie, then you in the fielde, and would account your diſport his puniſhment? ſuch there are, though you doubt and wonder.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → Brazilian Portuguese: game
  • → Dutch: gamen, game
  • → Irish: géim
  • → Japanese: ゲーム
  • → Korean: 게임 (geim), 겜 (gem)
  • → Norman: gamme
  • → Norwegian: gamen, game
  • → Spanish: game
  • → Welsh: gêm
  • → Finnish: geimit
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

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game (comparative gamer, superlative gamest)

  1. (colloquial) Willing and able to participate.
    Synonyms: sporting, willing, daring, disposed, favorable, nervy, courageous, valiant
    Antonyms: cautious, disinclined
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 36, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 180:
      " […] But what’s this long face about, Mr. Starbuck; wilt thou not chase the white whale? art not game for Moby Dick?”
    • 2016 February 23, Robbie Collin, “Grimsby review: ' Sacha Baron Cohen's vital, venomous action movie'”, in The Daily Telegraph (London):
      Some of Grimsby’s other (extraordinarily up-to-date) targets include Donald Trump and Daniel Radcliffe, whose fates here are too breath-catchingly cruel to spoil, and also the admirably game Strong, whose character is beset by a constant stream of humiliations that hit with the force of a jet of…well, you’ll see.
  2. (of an animal) That shows a tendency to continue to fight against another animal, despite being wounded, often severely.
  3. Persistent, especially in senses similar to the above.
Translations
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Verb

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game (third-person singular simple present games, present participle gaming, simple past and past participle gamed)

  1. (intransitive) To gamble.
  2. (intransitive) To play card games, board games, or video games.
    • 2017 June 16, Joanna Walters, “Inside the rehab saving young men from their internet addiction”, in The Guardian‎[3]:
      “The first few days after getting here are weird. It’s a version of cold turkey because you’ve been gaming around the clock and suddenly, nothing. […] ”
  3. (transitive) To exploit loopholes in a system or bureaucracy in a way which defeats or nullifies the spirit of the rules in effect, usually to obtain a result which otherwise would be unobtainable.
    We'll bury them in paperwork, and game the system.
    • 2012 August 31, Amanda Holpuch, “Trolls game Taylor Swift competition in favor of school for the hearing impaired”, in The Guardian‎[4]:
      A large batch of online trolls have gamed a web contest that promises a Taylor Swift performance at any school in the US. The target? Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
    • 2020 February 6, Alex Hern, quoting Natalie Hitchins, “Amazon Choice label is being 'gamed to promote poor products'”, in The Guardian‎[5]:
      “Amazon risks betraying the trust millions of customers place in the Amazon’s Choice badge by allowing its endorsement to be all too easily gamed,” said Which?’s Natalie Hitchins.
    • 2023 January 25, Christian Wolmar, “An informative cab ride on the state of the railway”, in RAIL, number 975, page 34:
      It is an example of what real entrepreneurship can do on the railway, but sadly there are not many other examples. Most of the private sector businesses in rail are simply 'gaming' the system, trying to outdo or outthink the regulator and the Government in order to generate profit.
  4. (transitive, seduction community, slang, of males) To perform premeditated seduction strategy.
    • 2005 October 6, “Picking up the pieces”, in The Economist‎[6]:
      Returning briefly to his journalistic persona to interview Britney Spears, he finds himself gaming her, and she gives him her phone number.
    • 2010, Mystery, The Pickup Artist: The New and Improved Art of Seduction, Villard Books, →ISBN, page 100:
      A business associate of mine at the time, George Wu, sat across the way, gaming a stripper the way I taught him.
    • 2010 July 9, Sheila McClear, “Would you date a pickup artist?”, in New York Post‎[7]:
      How did Amanda know she wasn’t getting gamed? Well, she didn’t. “I would wonder, ‘Is he saying stuff to other girls that he says to me?’ We did everything we could to cut it off […] yet we somehow couldn’t.”
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

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game (comparative more game, superlative most game)

  1. (of a limb) Injured, lame.
    • 1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Lost on Dress Parade”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC:
      You come with me and we'll have a cozy dinner and a pleasant talk together, and by that time your game ankle will carry you home very nicely, I am sure."
    • 1930, Edna Ferber, Cimarron, page 29:
      He was done for, all right. I took out my six-shooter and aimed right between his eyes. He kicked once, sort of leaped—or tried to, and then lay still. I stood there a minute, to see if he had to have another. He was so game that, some way, I didn’t want to give him more than he needed.

See also

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Anagrams

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Chinese

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From English game (Cheung, 2007, page 220).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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game

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) game (especially video games and online games) (Classifier: 隻／只 c)

Derived terms

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References

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from English game.

Noun

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game m (plural games, diminutive gamepje n)

  1. a video game, an electronic game
    Synonyms: videogame, videospel
Hyponyms
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Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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game

  1. inflection of gamen:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
    3. imperative
    4. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive

Middle English

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Etymology 1

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    Etymology tree
    Proto-Germanic *gamaną
    Proto-West Germanic *gaman
    Old English gamen
    Middle English game

    From Old English gamen／gomen, from Proto-West Germanic *gaman, from Proto-Germanic *gamaną, of disputed origin.

    Alternative forms

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    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /ˈɡaːm(ə)/, /ˈɡam(ə)/, /ˈɡaːmən/, /ˈɡamən/
    • (from OE gomen) IPA(key): /ˈɡɔːm(ə)/, /ˈɡɔːmən/
    • (Kent) IPA(key): /ˈɡɛːm(ə)/, /ˈɡɛːmən/

    Noun

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    game (plural games or game)

    1. Entertainment or an instance of it; that which is enjoyable:
      1. A sport or other outdoor or physical activity.
      2. A game; a codified (and often competitive) form of entertainment.
      3. Sexual or romantic entertainment or activity (including intercourse in itself).
      4. An amusing, joking, or humorous activity or event.
    2. Any kind of event or occurrence; something that happens:
      1. An endeavour; a set of actions towards a goal.
      2. Any kind of activity having competition or rivalry.
    3. The state of being happy or joyful.
    4. Game; wild animals hunted for food.
    5. (rare) One's quarry; that which one is trying to catch.
    6. (rare) Gamesmanship; gaming behaviour.
    7. (rare) The reward for winning a game.
    Derived terms
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    Descendants
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    References
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    Etymology 2

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    From Old English gæmnian, gamnian, gamenian.

    Verb

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    game

    1. Alternative form of gamen

    Portuguese

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    Etymology 1

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    Unadapted borrowing from English game.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    game m (plural games)

    1. (Brazil) electronic game (game played on an electronic device, such as a computer game, a video game or the like)
      Synonyms: videojogo, jogo
    Quotations
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    For quotations using this term, see Citations:game.

    See also
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    Etymology 2

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    See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

    Pronunciation

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    Verb

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    game

    1. inflection of gamar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative

    Spanish

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    Noun

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    game m (plural games)

    1. (tennis) game

    Swedish

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    Etymology

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    Borrowed from English game. Attested since 1900.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    game n

    1. (tennis, squash) game
    2. (slang) game (ability to seduce someone)
      Synonym: rizz

    Declension

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    Declension of game
    nominative genitive
    singular indefinite game games
    definite gamet gamets
    plural indefinite game games
    definite gamen gamens

    Derived terms

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    References

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    Vietnamese

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    Etymology

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    English game

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    game

    1. (video games) Synonym of trò chơi điện tử (“a video game”)

    See also

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