game

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime: party games; word games.
2. n. 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.
3. n. A single instance of such an activity: We lost the first game.
4. n. An organized athletic program or contest: track-and-field games; took part in the winter games.
5. n. A period of competition or challenge: It was too late in the game to change the schedule of the project.
6. n. The total number of points required to win a game: One hundred points is game in bridge.
7. n. The score accumulated at any given time in a game: The game is now 14 to 12.
8. n. The equipment needed for playing certain games: packed the children's games in the car.
9. n. A particular style or manner of playing a game: improved my tennis game with practice.
10. n. Informal An active interest or pursuit, especially one involving competitive engagement or adherence to rules: "the way the system operates, the access game, the turf game, the image game” ( Hedrick Smith).
11. n. Informal A business or occupation; a line: the insurance game.
12. n. Informal An illegal activity; a racket.
13. n. Informal Evasive, trifling, or manipulative behavior: wanted a straight answer, not more of their tiresome games.
14. n. Informal A calculated strategy or approach; a scheme: I saw through their game from the very beginning.
15. n. Mathematics A model of a competitive situation that identifies interested parties and stipulates rules governing all aspects of the competition, used in game theory to determine the optimal course of action for an interested party.
16. n. Wild animals, birds, or fish hunted for food or sport.
17. n. The flesh of these animals, eaten as food.
18. n. An object of attack, ridicule, or pursuit: The press considered the candidate's indiscretions to be game.
19. n. Mockery; sport: The older children teased and made game of the newcomer.
20. v. Archaic To waste or lose by gambling.
21. v. To play for stakes; gamble.
22. adj. Plucky and unyielding in spirit; resolute: She put up a game fight against her detractors.
23. adj. Ready and willing: Are you game for a swim?
24. idiom. ahead of the game In a position of advantage; winning or succeeding.
25. idiom. the only game in town Informal The only one of its kind available: "He's the only game in town for the press to write about” ( Leonard Garment).
26. adj. Crippled; lame: a game leg.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. 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.
2. n. A play or sport for amusement or diversion.
3. n. 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.
4. n. The art or mode of playing at a game: as, he plays a remarkable game.
5. n. The successful result of a game, or that which is staked on the result: as, the game is ours.
6. n. The requisite number of points or advantages to be gained in order to win a game: as, in cribbage 61 is game or the game.
7. n. A scheme; plan; project; artifice.
8. n. Amorous sport; gallantry; intrigue.
9. n. Sport in the field; field-sports, as the chase, falconry, etc.
10. n. That which is pursued or taken in hunting; the spoil of the chase; quarry; prey.
11. n. Collectively, animals of the chase; those wild animals that are pursued or taken for sport or profit, in hunting, trapping, fowling, or fishing; specifically, the animals useful to man, and whose preservation is therefore desirable, which are enumerated under this designation in the game-laws regulating their pursuit.
12. n. A game-fowl or game-cock. See phrases below.
13. n. A flock: said of swans.
14. n. The scheme has failed; all is at an end.
15. Of or belonging to such animals as are hunted as game: as, game animals; a game pie.
16. Having a plucky spirit, like that of a game-cock; courageous; unyielding: as, to die game.
17. Having the spirit or will to do something; equal to some adventure or exploit: as, are you game for a run or a swim?
18. To play at any sport or diversion.
19. To gamble; play for a stake, prize, or wager with cards, dice, balls, etc., according to certain rules. See gaming.
20. To be glad; rejoice; receive pleasure: sometimes used impersonally with the dative.
21. To stake or lose at play; gamble (away).
22. Crooked; lame: as, a game leg.
23. n. Specifically— A part of a rubber. The victors in two games out of three win the rubber.
24. n. One of the points to be scored in all-fours, as high, low, jack, and the game.
25. n. The number of players necessary, or required by the rules, for playing a game; a ‘set.’
26. n. In old archery, a meeting or public competition of archers.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable A pursuit or activity with rules performed either alone or with others, for the purpose of entertainment. In many games, the objective is to win by defeating the other player or players or being the first to reach a specified goal, while in others, role-playing or cooperation is emphasized.
2. n. countable, sports A contest between two individuals or teams. A game may refer to the entire encounter between the two (e.g. a basketball game), or to just one contest of several required to win (e.g. a tennis game).
3. n. countable, military An exercise simulating warfare for the purpose of training personnel, testing combat readiness, or to better understand various possible outcomes of various strategies or tactics. The exercise may involve human participants, or it may be simulated, often with the aid of computers.
4. n. uncountable Wild animals hunted for food.
5. n. countable A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.
6. n. uncountable, informal The ability to successfully seduce someone into a romantic or sexual relationship, usually achieved by pre-meditated strategy.
7. n. countable One or more questionable, unethical, or illegal practices.
8. adj. colloquial Willing to participate.
9. adj. of an animal An animal that shows a tendency to continue to fight against another animal, despite being wounded, often severely.
10. adj. Persistent, especially in senses similar to the above.
11. adj. Injured, lame (of a limb).
12. v. intransitive To gamble.
13. v. intransitive To play games and be a gamer.
14. v. 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.
15. v. transitive, slang To perform premeditated seduction strategy.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. colloq. Crooked; lame.
2. n. Sport of any kind; jest, frolic.
3. n. A contest, physical or mental, according to certain rules, for amusement, recreation, or for winning a stake
4. n. The use or practice of such a game; a single match at play; a single contest.
5. n. That which is gained, as the stake in a game; also, the number of points necessary to be scored in order to win a game.
6. n. (Card Playing) In some games, a point credited on the score to the player whose cards counts up the highest.
7. n. A scheme or art employed in the pursuit of an object or purpose; method of procedure; projected line of operations; plan; project.
8. n. Animals pursued and taken by sportsmen; wild meats designed for, or served at, table.
9. adj. Having a resolute, unyielding spirit, like the gamecock; ready to fight to the last; plucky.
10. adj. Of or pertaining to such animals as are hunted for game, or to the act or practice of hunting.
11. v. obsolete To rejoice; to be pleased; -- often used, in Old English, impersonally with dative.
12. v. To play at any sport or diversion.
13. v. To play for a stake or prize; to use cards, dice, billiards, or other instruments, according to certain rules, with a view to win money or some other thing waged upon the issue of the contest; to gamble.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. animal hunted for food or sport
2. v. place a bet on
3. n. a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal)
4. n. frivolous or trifling behavior
5. n. your occupation or line of work
6. n. a contest with rules to determine a winner
7. n. the flesh of wild animals that is used for food
8. n. an amusement or pastime
9. n. (games) the score at a particular point or the score needed to win
10. n. (tennis) a division of play during which one player serves
11. n. a single play of a sport or other contest
12. adj. willing to face danger
13. n. the game equipment needed in order to play a particular game
14. adj. disabled in the feet or legs