Game definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (113)

American Heritage Dictionary (26)

noun An activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime: party games; word games.
noun A competitive activity or sport in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules: the game of basketball; the game of gin rummy.
noun A single instance of such an activity: We lost the first game.

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Century Dictionary (69)

Mirth; amusement; play; sport of any kind; joke; jest, as opposed to earnest: as, to make game of a person, or of his pretensions or actions (now the chief use of the word in this sense). See to make game of, below. “Wherefore,” quod she, “in ernest and in game, To putte in me the defaute ye are to blame.” Generydes (E. E. T. S.), l. 874. But goldles for to be it is no game. Chaucer, Shipman's Tale, l. 290. And gladness through the palace spread, Wi' mickle game and glee. Skiœn Anna; Fair Annie (Child's Ballads, III. 389). Then on her head they sett a girlond greene, And crowned her twixt earnest and twixt game. Spenser, F. Q., I. xii. 8. We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game. Shak., L. L. L., v. 2. These many years in this most wretched island We two have liv'd, the scorn and game of Fortune. Fletcher (and another), Sea Voyage, i. 3. Thou shalt stand to all posterity, The eternal game and laughter. B. Jonson, Sejanus, v. 4.
A play or sport for amusement or diversion. In their games children are actors, architects, and poets, and sometimes musical composers as well. J. Sully, Outlines of Psychol., p. 540.
A contest for success or superiority in a trial of chance, skill, or endurance, or of any two or all three of these combined: as, a game at cards, dice, or roulette; the games of billiards, draughts, and dominoes; athletic games; the Floral games. The games of classical antiquity were chiefly public trials of athletic skill and endurance, as in throwing the discus, wrestling, boxing, leaping, running, horse- and chariot-racing, etc. They were exhibited either periodically, usually in honor of some god, as the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games of Greece, the Ludi A pollinares at Rome, etc., or from time to time for the amusement of the people, as the Circensian games at Rome. The prizes in the Greek periodical games were generally without intrinsic value, as garlands or wreaths of olive- or laurel-leaves, of parsley, etc.; but at the Panathenaic games of Athens the prizes were quantities of olive-oil from the consecrated orchards, given in a special type of painted amphoræ, of which a hundred or more might constitute a single prize. The four great Greek national games formed the strongest bond in the nature of a national union between the various independent Greek states. At them any person of Hellenic blood had the right to contest for the victory, the most highly esteemed honor in Greece; and citizens of all states, however hostile, met at these games in peace. Lycaon hath the report of setting our first publicke games, and proving of maistries and feats of strength and activitee, in Arcadia. Holland, tr. of Pliny, vii. 56. A fool That Seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn. Shak., W. T., i. 2. In certain nations also there were instituted particular games of the Torch, to the honour of Prometheus; in which they who ran for the prize carried lighted torches. Bacon, Physical Fables, ii. “My cocks,” says he, “are true cocks of the game—I make a match of cock-fighting, and then an hundred or two pounds are soon won, for I never fight a battle under.” Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, p. 20.

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This game is actually a sequel to Brick Stacker, but Bricks Stacker 2 sounded so boring that we renamed the game to Brick Yard.
But here I am, late Saturday (early Sunday, technically), writing about Monday's title game between UNC and MSU, and I couldn't be more excited despite that December blowout, because I don't think this game will be anything like that game. — Sports News : CBSSports.com
This game is again one that's been written about a lot and is a fairly straight forward game, at its most basic. — gamegrene.com
For those of you who have been keeping a close eye on the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Touch game, we can now tell you that the first Debut Trailer for the game is available to view on the game's official website. — PR News:
Like we just had to realize the game is the game, and what happens during the game is isolated to the game.

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

Middle English, from Old English gamen.
Origin unknown.

Century Dictionary (3)

from Middle English game, an abbreviation (due to mistaking the termination -en for a suffix of inflection) of gamen, gomen, also spelled gammen (later modern English gammon, q. v.), from Anglo-Saxon gamen, gomen, game, joy, sport, = Old Saxon gaman = OFries. game, gome = Old High German gaman, Middle High German gamen, joy, = Icelandic gaman, game, sport, amusement, = Old Swedish gammen, Swedish gamman = Old Danish gamell, Danish gammen, mirth, merriment. Hence ult. gamble, gammon.
from Middle English gamen, gomen, shorter form of gamenen, gomenen, from Anglo-Saxon gamenian, game, play, = Icelandic gamna, amuse, divert; from the noun. Cf. gamble, v.
A dial. form of cam, crooked. Cf. gamb, dial. gamble, a leg, from the same ult. source.

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