Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Plural form of
spillikin .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a game in which players try to pick each jackstraw (or spillikin) off of a pile without moving any of the others
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Mrs Bosenna, seated at the head of her polished mahogany table and engaged upon a game of "spillikins" -- which is a solitary trial of skill, and consists in lifting, one by one, with a delicate ivory hook a mass of small ivory pieces tangled as intricately as the bones in a kingfisher's nest -- showed no more than a pretty surprise at the intrusion.
Hocken and Hunken Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903
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Monique: Glad you mentioned "pick-up sticks" for I had completely forgotten to mention the name of the game (aka "spillikins")!
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Monique: Glad you mentioned "pick-up sticks" for I had completely forgotten to mention the name of the game aka "spillikins"!
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I throw in this explanation of "spillikins" to fill up a somewhat long and painful pause during which Cai and 'Bias without speech slowly questioned one another.
Hocken and Hunken Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903
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It's called "Lustige Jagd" or "Chasse Joyeuse" and the instructions are in German and French; we called the game pick up sticks or spillikins.
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It's called "Lustige Jagd" or "Chasse Joyeuse" and the instructions are in German and French; we called the game pick up sticks or spillikins.
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Well, "said the captain, setting the course for Gentian's Star and clicking on the long-range detectors," we'll play for spillikins.
The Wizard Of Karres Lackey, Mercedes 2004
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The whole fabric that he had been building, like a game of spillikins in which one frail little bone is hooked on top of another, was dashed to the ground.
The Years 2004
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A bomb has torn open the side; there is still a birdcage hanging in what was presumably the sitting-room, but the rest of the house looks like nothing so much as a bunch of spillikins suspended in mid air.
Three Guineas 2003
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At home there were card games to organize and billiard games and spillikins for the children and a few more energetic games, like hide-and-seek.
Unforgiven Balogh, Mary 1998
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