game over

English

The message originated on pinball machines and has been very widely used in video games.

(video games) A message signaling that the game has ended, usually because the player failed (for example by losing all of their lives) but sometimes following successful completion of the game.
- 1984, Robert Maxxe, Arcade:
  Before I could figure out what the hell was the object of the game, I hear the thing go boom-boom, and the screen lights up with a sign: game over.
(by extension) The end of some ongoing situation due to either failure or success, typically failure.
If your wife finds out about us, it's game over!
- 1986, Aliens:
  That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?
- 2004, Ryan Russell, Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent, page xxi:
  Once we started attacking that network from the inside, it was pretty much game over.
(by extension) Death.
When you have cancer, you pretty much have two options: chemotherapy, or game over.

message

Arabic: اِنْتَهَت اللُّعْبَة f (intahat al-luʕba)
Azerbaijani: oyun bitdi
Bulgarian: играта свърши (igrata svǎrši)
Czech: konec hry
Esperanto: finita ludo
Finnish: peli ohi
French: game over (fr) m, fin de jeu f, jeu terminé, partie terminée, fin de partie (fr) f
Georgian: თამაში დასრულდა (tamaši dasrulda)
German: Game over n
Hindi: खेल ख़त्म m (khel xatma)
Hungarian: vége a játéknak
Italian: gioco terminato
Japanese: ゲームオーバー (gēmu ōbā)
Korean: 게임 오버 (geim obeo)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: lîstik xelas
Mongolian: тоглоом дууслаа (togloom duuslaa)
Norwegian: game over
Persian: please add this translation if you can
Polish: koniec gry
Portuguese: fim de jogo (pt) m
Russian: игра́ зако́нчена (igrá zakónčena)
Spanish: partida terminada f, jugada acabada f
Swedish: spelet är över, spelet är slut
Turkish: oyun bitti
Urdu: کھیل ختم m (khel xatma)
Vietnamese: trò chơi kết thúc

end of some ongoing situation

game over (plural game overs)

(video games) An appearance of a game over message.
When you die too many times in this game, you get a game over.

game over (third-person singular simple present game overs or games over, present participle game overing or gaming over, simple past and past participle game overed or gamed over)