game
Pluralgames
Pluralgames
- 1An activity governed by a set of rules, usually meant for entertainment and often competitive or aimed at a clear goal.
Each game on the festival schedule had its own rules and prizes.
Soccer is a game enjoyed by millions of people around the world.
UsageYou play a game and win or lose it.
- 2A single occasion of playing, counted from beginning to end.
She watched every game her son played that season.
Rain forced the umpires to call the game in the fifth inning.
Similarmatch
- 3Short for video game: a game played on a screen using a console, computer or phone.
He preordered the game months before its release date.
The studio patched the game to fix several bugs after launch.
UsageUse on for the device: play a game on a computer or on a console.
Note
Clipped from video game whenever context makes the medium clear, so a critic can write of games such as Limbo without saying 'video' once.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Game in this sense is an ellipsis of video game. en.wiktionary.org
- Limbo is a video game. en.wikipedia.org
- 4Playful activity that need not follow fixed rules; an amusement or pastime.
She made a game of chasing him around the kitchen.
What started as a harmless game of splashing each other soon turned into a real quarrel between the brothers.
UsageSet phrases: make a game of something; fun and games.
Similarfun, play, amusement, entertainment, recreation
Note
Play for its own sake sits closest to the word's roots. Its natural opposites are work, toil and drudgery, not losing.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The word descends from Old English gamen, meaning sport, joy, pastime or amusement. en.wiktionary.org
- Work, toil and drudgery are antonyms of the amusement sense. en.wiktionary.org
- 5The way someone plays or performs, in a sport or any activity, and the level of skill they show.
The coach told her to work on the weaker parts of her game.
Under pressure, his game fell apart in the closing minutes.
UsageUsually with a possessive: work on your game. He's got game means skill itself.
- 6Wild animals, birds or fish hunted for sport or for food; also, the meat of such animals eaten as food.
The estate was stocked with game for the autumn hunting season.
Local cooks prize game for its strong, distinctive flavor.
UsageStays singular for many animals: stocked with game; big game means large animals.
- 7To play card, board, or video games, typically for entertainment.
They game online with friends scattered across the country.
He likes to game until well past midnight on weekends.
UsageMost often met as gaming: he spends hours gaming online.
Similarplay
- 8A situation or pattern that works like a game with rules, despite not being deliberately designed.
Office politics is a game whose rules everyone obeys but no one admits to.
Courtship, he decided, was a game neither player would confess to playing.
UsageCommon in set phrases: the game of life, the waiting game.
Note
Metaphor does the work here: the game of life, the waiting game, and the 'new great game' across the globe in Timothy Garton Ash's 2013 phrase. Shakespeare's Henry V gives the best-known line, 'The game's afoot', spoken over men straining like greyhounds in the slips. There the game is first of all the quarry the hounds are about to chase, so the line draws on hunting as much as on play.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Timothy Garton Ash used the quoted phrase in 2013. en.wiktionary.org
- Garton Ash's wording describes a new great game across the globe. theguardian.com
- In Shakespeare's Henry V, King Henry says 'The game's afoot' immediately after comparing his soldiers to straining greyhounds. folger.edu
- The quarry interpretation follows from the passage's hunting imagery. folger.edu
- 9A line of work, whether an industry or a profession, in which people earn a living.
Veterans of the advertising game know how fast client loyalty can shift.
She walked away from the corporate game to start a small nonprofit.
UsageMost often singular with the: the advertising game, the best in the game.
Similarbusiness, industry, trade, profession
Note
Calling a profession a game casts it as a contest with winners, and the tone is casual.
- 10A dubious or unethical tactic used to achieve some goal.
Inflating expenses before an audit is a risky game that often backfires.
She refused to take part in the backroom game her colleagues were playing.
UsageCommon phrases include What's your game? (What are you really trying to do?) and the game is up (the deception has been discovered).
Note
Suspicion is built into this one, and it lives in fixed phrases. 'What's your game?' asks what someone is really after. 'The game is up' announces that a scheme has been found out; Blackwood's Magazine already has 'Your murderous game is nearly up' in 1829. Scheme and racket are its near neighbors.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The quotation appears in Blackwood's Magazine in 1829, in September's ‘Colonna the Painter’. gutenberg.org
- The quoted wording is accurate. gutenberg.org
Less common meanings
- 11A major sports competition that brings many contests together, often across several sports, and recurs on a regular schedule.
The Olympic flame was lit inside the stadium, and the Games were officially open.
Hosting the Games left the city with a new stadium and a large public debt.
UsageTakes a plural verb even for a single event: the Games were open.
- 12Willing and ready to do something new, hard, or risky, and determined to keep going.
The whole team was game to try the new training routine.
Ask him to help move the piano; he's usually game.
UsageGame for + noun, game to + verb: game for anything, game to try.
Similarwilling, ready, eager, keen, enthusiastic
Oppositeunwilling, reluctant, hesitant
Note
Most at home after a verb: 'I was game', or Melville's 'art not game for Moby Dick?'. Before a noun it praises a good sport, as in Robbie Collin's 2016 review of 'the admirably game Strong'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The quotation occurs in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; Captain Ahab is the speaker. gutenberg.org
- Robbie Collin's review was published in 2016. en.wiktionary.org
- Collin used the exact phrase 'the admirably game Strong' in that review. en.wiktionary.org
- 13The physical equipment that lets you play, especially as sold together under a single title.
He unwrapped the game and found the dice missing from the box.
Several games on the top shelf still had their plastic wrapping.
- 14To exploit loopholes in a system or set of rules so as to obtain a result the rules were meant to prevent.
Speculators game the auction process to corner scarce supplies.
Critics argue that the policy lets wealthy applicants game the admissions criteria.
UsageClose to a set phrase: game the system. It also works in the passive: easily gamed.
Similarexploit, manipulate, rig, abuse
Note
Christian Wolmar put 'gaming' in scare quotes in 2023, as if still flagging the metaphor of play behind it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The cited Christian Wolmar article appeared in 2023. en.wiktionary.org
- The cited passage places quotation marks around 'gaming'. en.wiktionary.org
- 15In tennis and some similar sports, a single scoring unit, several of which make up a set.
She broke serve in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead.
The champion dropped only two games in the whole match.
UsagePoints make a game, games make a set, and sets make a match.
Note
Tennis scoring nests in layers: points make a game, games make a set, sets make a match. The trap for a newcomer is that a game here is a small slice of play, not the whole contest, which tennis calls the match.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Tennis scoring progresses from points to games to sets to matches. lta.org.uk
- A scoring game is part of the complete tennis contest, called a match. usta.com
- 16To gamble, especially by playing games of chance for money.
The men gamed by candlelight until dawn, and by morning the young lord had lost his horse.
They gathered each Friday to game for small stakes.
Note
The -ing form is where this verb is most often met: an 1880s tribute to George Washington lists gaming beside swearing among 'immoral practices'. Because the verb for playing games shares every form, gaming on its own needs context. At a card table with money down it means stakes; at a console it means play.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- 1898 is the date of the collection reprinting the tribute. The same passage already appears on pages 139–140 of Carrington's Patriotic Reader, copyrighted 1887 and 1888. upload.wikimedia.org
- The tribute to George Washington groups gaming and swearing among 'immoral practices'. upload.wikimedia.org
- 17Skill at attracting or wooing a romantic interest, usually through a deliberate approach.
His friends teased him about losing his game after the breakup.
She had enough game to get his number before the party was over.
UsageUsual shapes: someone has game or has no game.
Note
Mostly said of men, and usually in a few set shapes: someone has game or has no game, and in Nate Dogg's 1998 lyric he 'ran my game' on a woman. It sits close to the pickup-artist verb, but the noun is broader and more casual, the stuff of teasing among friends rather than the vocabulary of a method.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Nate Dogg performed the quoted words about approaching a woman in the 1998 song “She's Strange”. en.wiktionary.org
- 18An exercise that simulates warfare, whether run on computers or carried out by human participants.
The generals staged a war game to rehearse their response to an invasion.
Analysts designed a game to model how the conflict might unfold.
UsageMost often war game or wargame.
Similarexercise, simulation
Note
Such games may run on computers or with people taking opposing sides. The point is to test strategy and rehearse decisions before anything real is at stake, so 'game' here signals simulation, not amusement.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Wargames can be conducted manually or using computers. canada.ca
- Human participants can represent opposing sides. canada.ca
- Wargames allow strategy testing and decision practice in a simulated environment. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
- 19Usually games: sport and physical exercise taught as a school subject.
Games was canceled because the pitch was waterlogged after the storm.
During games, the older pupils were taught rugby while the younger ones did athletics.
UsageGoes without an article, like other school subjects: do games, miss games.
SimilarPE
Note
A British school word that takes the plural: pupils have games, and Stephen Fry's The Liar (1991) capitalizes it as a timetabled subject, describing boys 'who enjoyed Games'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Stephen Fry wrote The Liar. en.wikipedia.org
- The Liar was first published in 1991. cdn.penguin.co.uk
- The novel describes boys using the exact words “who enjoyed Games”, capitalizing the school subject. en.wiktionary.org
- 20Showing a tendency to keep fighting another animal despite being wounded, often severely.
A game fighting cock will press its attack despite deep wounds.
Breeders prized the bull for being so game in the ring.
Similarplucky, gritty, brave, spirited
Oppositecowardly, timid, craven
Note
Courage under injury is what this sense prizes in a fighting animal, and the willing sense extends it to anything that keeps going. Beware the near-collision with the word for a lame limb, which has a different origin. A game animal fights on though hurt, while a game ankle is simply hurt.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The willing sense developed from the fighting-animal sense. gutenberg.org
- Game meaning lame has a separate origin from game meaning courageous. archive.org
- 21Injured or lame, typically said of a limb.
The old dog favored its game hind leg on the stairs.
A game shoulder forced the pitcher to retire early.
UsageComes before the noun: a game leg, a game shoulder.
Similarlame, injured, bad, bum
Note
A separate word that shares the spelling and attaches to limbs: O. Henry writes of 'your game ankle' in 1906.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Game meaning lame is a separate word from game meaning courageous. archive.org
- O. Henry uses the exact phrase 'your game ankle'. gutenberg.org
- 22Prostitution, now chiefly in the expression 'on the game'.
Court records from the period list several local women as being on the game.
He admitted his sister had gone on the game to pay the rent.
UsageUse be on the game for doing this work and go on the game for starting it.
Similarprostitution
Note
Older English dressed this sense in polite phrasing. Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida has 'daughters of the game', and Smollett's 1755 Don Quixote renders Cervantes's mugeres moças as 'ladies of the game'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida contains 'daughters of the game'; the speaker is Ulysses, in Act 4, scene 5. folger.edu
- Smollett's translation of Don Quixote was first published in 1755. csulb.edu
- Smollett uses 'ladies of the game' in the corresponding passage of Don Quixote. gutenberg.org
- Cervantes's original describes these women as 'mugeres moças', followed by a qualification identifying their occupation. tha.de
- 23To use a premeditated strategy in order to seduce someone.
Members of the seduction community teach men to game women with scripted openers.
He bragged about gaming three different women in one weekend.
UsageThis use belongs especially to discussions of pickup artists and their methods.
Similarseduce
Note
The pickup-artist world gave this verb its working sense. It takes the person pursued as its object, as in Mystery's The Pickup Artist (2010): 'gaming a stripper the way I taught him'. The passive turns the view around, as in 'How did Amanda know she wasn't getting gamed?'.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Mystery wrote The Pickup Artist, first published in 2010. penguinrandomhouse.com
- The quoted wording occurs in Mystery's book and illustrates taking the pursued person as the verb's object. en.wiktionary.org
- The Amanda quotation is accurately worded and illustrates the passive. Wiktionary attributes it to Sheila McClear's article, rather than Mystery's book. en.wiktionary.org
- 24Amorous play; flirtation or lovemaking.
Note
Amorous play is an old reach of the word, and it is now rare. Modern readers are likely to hear on the game or the slang of seduction before they hear innocent flirtation.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Game has a historical meaning of amorous play, attested in Middle English. en.wiktionary.org
- 25What is gained in a contest, such as the stake or pot.
- 26The number of points required to win a game.
- 27In card games such as all fours, a point awarded to the player or side whose cards won in tricks have the highest total scoring value.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English game, from Old English gamen ("sport, joy, pastime, amusement"), from Proto-Germanic *gamaną ("amusement, pleasure"), literally something like "participation" or "people together," perhaps built from a collective prefix *ga- plus *mann- ("man"); alternatively the second part may come from a Proto-Indo-European root *men- ("to think"). It is related to gammon and gamble.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 10 facts
- Game descends from Middle English game and Old English gamen. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English gamen meant sport, joy, pastime or amusement. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English gamen descends from Proto-Germanic *gamaną. en.wiktionary.org
- Proto-Germanic *gamaną is reconstructed with meanings including amusement and pleasure. en.wiktionary.org
- Participation or people together is a proposed literal interpretation. en.wiktionary.org
- A proposed derivation combines *ga- and *mann-. en.wiktionary.org
- *ga- expresses association or togetherness. en.wiktionary.org
- An alternative derivation connects the second element with Proto-Indo-European *men-, meaning to think. en.wiktionary.org
- Game is etymologically related to gammon in its play or joking senses. en.wiktionary.org
- Game is etymologically related to gamble. en.wiktionary.org