game

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English game, gamen, gammen, from Old English gamen (“sport, joy, mirth, pastime, game, amusement, pleasure”), 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 Middle High German gamen (“joy, amusement, fun, pleasure”), Swedish gamman (“mirth, rejoicing, merriment”), Icelandic gaman (“fun”). Related to gammon, gamble.

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

game (countable and uncountable, plural games)

  1. A playful or competitive activity.
    1. A playful activity that may be unstructured; an amusement or pastime.
      Being a child is all fun and games.
    2. (countable) An activity described by a set of rules, especially for the purpose of entertainment, often competitive or having an explicit goal.
      • 1983, Lawrence Lasker & 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.
      • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 37:
        From time to time, track-suited boys ran past them, with all the deadly purpose and humourless concentration of those who enjoyed Games.
      Games in the classroom can make learning fun.
    3. (countable) A particular instance of playing a game; 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 731476803:
        “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”.
    4. That which is gained, such as the stake in a game.
    5. The number of points necessary to win a game.
      In short whist, five points are game.
    6. (card games) In some games, a point awarded to the player whose cards add up to the largest sum.
    7. (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.
    8. 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, The Catcher in the Rye, chapter 11:
        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.
    9. (obsolete, uncountable) An amorous dalliance.
  2. (countable) A 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.
  3. (countable, informal, nearly always singular) A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.
    When it comes to making sales, John is the best in the game.
    He's in the securities game somehow.
  4. (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, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act THIRD, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:
      I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon 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 731476803:
      “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.
  5. (countable, military) An exercise simulating warfare, whether computerized or involving human participants.
  6. (uncountable) Wild animals hunted for food.
    The forest has plenty of game.
  7. (uncountable, informal, used mostly of males) The ability to seduce someone, usually by strategy.
    He didn't get anywhere with her because he had no game.
    • (Can we date this quote by Nate Dogg and provide title, author's full name, and other details?), She's Strange (song)
      She's strange, so strange, but I didn't complain. She said yes to me when I ran my game.
  8. (uncountable, slang) Mastery; the ability to excel at something.
    • 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.
  9. (countable) A questionable or unethical practice in pursuit of a goal; a scheme.
    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.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from game (noun)

Descendants[edit]

  • → Dutch: gamen, game
  • → Japanese: ゲーム
  • → Norman: gamme
  • → Norwegian: gamen, game
  • → Portuguese: game
  • → Spanish: game
  • → Welsh: gêm

Translations[edit]

video game — See also translations at video game
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective[edit]

game (comparative gamer, superlative gamest)

  1. (colloquial) Willing to participate.
    • 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.
  4. Injured, lame (of a limb).
    • around 1900, O. Henry, Lost on Dress Parade
      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."

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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

  1. (intransitive) To gamble.
  2. (intransitive) To play video games.
  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.
  4. (transitive, slang, of males) To perform premeditated seduction strategy.
    • 2005, "Picking up the pieces", The Economist, 6 October 2005:
      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 (2010), →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, Sheila McClear, "Would you date a pickup artist?", New York Post, 9 July 2010:
      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[edit]

Translations[edit]

to gamble — see gamble

See also[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

game

  1. first-person singular present indicative of gamen
  2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of gamen
  3. imperative of gamen

Middle English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

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[edit]
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old English gæmnian, gamnian, gamenian.

Verb[edit]

game

  1. Alternative form of gamen

Portuguese[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from English game.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

game m (plural games)

  1. (Brazil, slang) electronic game (game played on an electronic device, such as a computer game, a video game or the like)
Quotations[edit]

For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:game.

See also[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

game

  1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of gamar
  2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of gamar
  3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of gamar
  4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of gamar

Spanish[edit]

Noun[edit]

game m (plural games)

  1. (tennis) game
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