Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A card game for from two to four players in which the score is kept by inserting small pegs into holes arranged in rows on a small board.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A game of cards played with the full pack, generally by two persons, sometimes by three or four.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A game of cards, played by two or four persons, in which there is a crib. (See crib, 11.) It is characterized by a great variety of chances.
  • noun a board with holes and pegs, used by cribbage players to score their game.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun card games A point-counting card game for two players, with variants for three or four players; the (cribbage board) used for scoring to 61 or 121 points in numerous small increments is characteristic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a card game (usually for two players) in which each player is dealt six cards and discards one or two

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From crib.]

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Examples

  • “Really … because I’m what one might call a cribbage master,” Ben said.

    Elixir Hilary Duff 2010

  • Just as a solitary sailor will beguile the tedium of empty days at sea by a kind of cribbage, in which the left hand plays against the right, so I laid odds for and against myself on such trifles as these, and even went so far as to keep an account of my successes and my failures.

    The Quest of the Simple Life Dawson, William J 1907

  • However, I fear they are retreating, and minority indulgences such as cribbage are going the same way as dominoes, shove ha'penny, bar billiards, and the very jolly, unpretentious boozers in which they used to be played day and night.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2010

  • He loved fishing, camping and playing card games such as cribbage and Texas hold 'em, she said.

    HeraldNet.com Local, Sports, Business and Entertainment News 2009

  • When we lived together during college, we would play cribbage for hours at a time, and our friends would gather around the table long into the night and would even continue playing the following day.

    Family Game Night « Happy Healthy Hip Parenting 2009

  • We took a walk up the street and Capa just stopped and joined a game of cribbage that some fishermen were playing, and next there would be a girl, and he joked 'Where's your boyfriend?'

    Rare Robert Capa print in auction of news photography treasures 2011

  • We shouldn't even have to ignore him ... he should simply shut up and go play cribbage with grandma. elaine bergstrom

    McCain challenges Obama 2009

  • Sometimes we play backgammon or cribbage, and sometimes we go to bed early.

    Left Neglected Lisa Genova 2011

  • One night, not long after the return, Scott and Matt sat at a game of cribbage preliminary to going to bed.

    The Love-Master 2010

  • It was warm and comfortable, and he was playing cribbage with the Factor.

    The Hunger Cry 2010

Comments

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  • cribbage:

    estimation of the age of archaeological ruins, also known as domochronology

    January 12, 2009