gaming

1. 1
   noununcountableabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of videogaming.

   Online gaming has become a major part of youth culture.

   She streams her gaming to thousands of viewers every night.

   Note

   A clipping of videogaming, which is also written as two words, video gaming. Once the video element is dropped, context has to carry it. Online gaming or a gaming console points to screens, while tabletop gaming steers back to game-playing in general. Where the setting leaves room for doubt, the full form avoids a clash with the gambling sense.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act or practice of playing a game, regardless of its type.

   Tabletop gaming saw a revival as friends gathered for weekly sessions.

   Her interest in gaming ranges from dice to elaborate strategy contests.

   Note

   Usually a mass noun, though a plural exists. Robert Barclay's An Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1678) condemns the "sportings, and gamings" invented to pass away precious time. Because the word covers every kind of game, it blurs easily into the gambling sense. A phrase like the gaming industry, said of slot machines, belongs there rather than here. A modifier usually narrows it, as in tabletop gaming.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Gambling, especially as the industry and its regulators prefer to call the wagering of money on games of chance.

   The state legalized gaming to boost tax revenue from casinos.

   Regulators monitor the gaming floor to ensure fair play.

   Similargambling

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of game.

   She spent the holiday gaming and catching up with old friends online.

   He is gaming on a new console he bought last week.

   Note

   One spelling serves every verb sense of game, so the object decides the meaning. With no object it means playing cards, board games or video games, or gambling. With an object it means working a system's loopholes against its spirit, as in gaming the system. Slang uses the same transitive pattern for calculated seduction. The noun matching the rule-bending use is strategic use of the rules.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   Careful, strategic use of the rules to get what one wants, much as a player uses the rules of a game.

   Critics called the maneuver shameless gaming of the bankruptcy laws.

   Her promotion owed less to merit than to skillful gaming of office politics.

   Similarmanipulation, exploitation, abuse, rigging

6. 6
   noununcountable

   Used jokingly before a noun for anything decorated in rainbow colors, in parody of the LED-lit computer accessories marketed as gaming mice and the like.

   The blender glowed with rainbow LEDs, a so-called gaming blender that did nothing faster.

   His rainbow-lit toaster became the office's favorite gaming toaster.

   Note

   Online slang that mocks a marketing habit. Accessories sold to players tend to glow in rainbow LEDs, so any garishly lit object can be dubbed a gaming kettle or a gaming toaster. It works only as the first part of a compound, before a noun, and it is always tongue-in-cheek. The joke depends on the video-game meaning, so context decides whether a gaming chair is built for play or merely lit up.

Showing meanings only. Show all 6