game

adj

1. Injured, lame.

   “You come with me and we'll have a cozy dinner and a pleasant talk together, and by that time your game ankle will carry you home very nicely, I am sure."”

   “He was done for, all right. I took out my six-shooter and aimed right between his eyes. He kicked once, sort of leaped—or tried to, and then lay still. I stood there a minute, to see if he had to have another. He was so game that, some way, I didn’t want to give him more than he needed.”

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *gamaną Proto-West Germanic *gaman Old English gamen Middle English game English game From Middle English game, gamen, gammen, from Old English gamen (“sport, joy, mirth, pastime, game, amusement, pleasure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaman, from Proto-Germanic *gamaną (“amusement, pleasure, game", literally "participation, communion, people together”), from *ga- (collective prefix) + *mann- (“man”); or alternatively from *ga- + a root from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think, have in mind”). Cognate with Yola gaame, gaaume, gaume (“game”), Old Frisian game, gome (“joy, amusement, entertainment”), Dutch gemelijk (“cantankerous, crabbed”), Middle High German gamen (“joy, amusement, fun, pleasure”), Danish gammen (“merriment”), Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk gaman (“joy, fun”), Swedish gamman (“mirth, rejoicing, merriment”). Related to gammon, gamble.

1. A playful or competitive activity.

   “Being a child is all fun and games.”

2. A playful or competitive activity.

   “Games in the classroom can make learning fun.”

   “Joshua: Shall we play a game? David: ... Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War? Joshua: Wouldn't you prefer a good game of chess? David: Later. Let's play Global Thermonuclear War. Joshua: Fine.”

3. A playful or competitive activity.

   “From time to time tracksuited boys ran past them, with all the deadly purpose and humourless concentration of those who enjoyed Games.”

4. A playful or competitive activity.

   “Sally won the game.”

   “They can turn the game around in the second half.”

5. A playful or competitive activity.
6. A playful or competitive activity.

   “In short whist, five points are game, while in in table tennis game is 21 points.”

   “See also: for the win”

7. A playful or competitive activity.
8. A playful or competitive activity.

   “Some of the games in the closet we have on the computer as well.”

9. A playful or competitive activity.

   “Study can help your game of chess.”

   “Hit the gym if you want to toughen up your game.”

10. A playful or competitive activity.

    “There’s a sense here, as well as in games such as Limbo, that we’re making ourselves experience our children’s reality, trapped in the chaos that the adults have created.”

11. A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.

    “When it comes to making sales, John is the best in the game.”

    “He's in the securities game somehow.”

12. A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.

    “The rapper bragged about how he ran the game.”

13. Something that resembles a game with rules, despite not being designed.

    “In the game of life, you may find yourself playing the waiting game far too often.”

    “I ſee you ſtand like Grey-hounds in the ſlips, / Straying vpon the Start. The Game’s afoot:”

14. An exercise simulating warfare, whether computerized or involving human participants.
15. A questionable or unethical practice in pursuit of a goal.

    “You want to borrow my credit card for a week? What's your game?”

    “Your murderous game is nearly up.”

16. Wild animals hunted for food.

    “The forest has plenty of game.”

    “I had known the President several years before he became famous, and we had had some correspondence on subjects of natural history. His interest in such themes is always very fresh and keen, and the main motive of his visit to the Park at this time was to see and study in its semi-domesticated condition the great game which he had so often hunted during his ranch days; and he was kind enough to think it would be an additional pleasure to see it with a nature-lover like myself.”

17. The ability to seduce or woo someone, usually by strategy.

    “He didn't get anywhere with her because he had no game.”

    “She's strange, so strange, but I didn't complain / She said yes to me when I ran my game”

18. Lovemaking, flirtation.
19. Prostitution. (Now chiefly in on the game.)

    “ſet them downe, / For ſlottiſh ſpoyles of opportunitie; / And daughters of the game.”

    “[H]e put spurs to his horse, and just in the twilight reached the gate, where, at that time, there happened to be two ladies of the game [translating mugeres moças], who being on their journey to Seville, with the carriers, had chanced to take up their night's lodging in this place.”

20. Mastery; the ability to excel at something.

    “What is game? Who got game? / Where's the game in life, behind the game behind the game / I got game, she's got game / We got game, they got game, he got game”

    “In the contemporary arts of the academic contact zone, I say African American students got game!”

21. Diversion, entertainment.

    “To ſet the minde on the racke of long meditation (you ſay) is a torment: to follow the ſwift foote of your hound alday long, hath no wearineſſe: what would you ſay of him that finds better game in his ſtudie, then you in the fielde, and would account your diſport his puniſhment? ſuch there are, though you doubt and wonder.”

verb

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *gamaną Proto-West Germanic *gaman Old English gamen Middle English game English game From Middle English game, gamen, gammen, from Old English gamen (“sport, joy, mirth, pastime, game, amusement, pleasure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaman, from Proto-Germanic *gamaną (“amusement, pleasure, game", literally "participation, communion, people together”), from *ga- (collective prefix) + *mann- (“man”); or alternatively from *ga- + a root from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think, have in mind”). Cognate with Yola gaame, gaaume, gaume (“game”), Old Frisian game, gome (“joy, amusement, entertainment”), Dutch gemelijk (“cantankerous, crabbed”), Middle High German gamen (“joy, amusement, fun, pleasure”), Danish gammen (“merriment”), Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk gaman (“joy, fun”), Swedish gamman (“mirth, rejoicing, merriment”). Related to gammon, gamble.

1. To gamble.

   “an impressive protest against gaming, swearing, and all immoral practices which might forfeit divine aid in the great struggle for National Independence”

2. To play card games, board games, or video games.

   ““The first few days after getting here are weird. It’s a version of cold turkey because you’ve been gaming around the clock and suddenly, nothing. […]””

3. 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.

   “We'll bury them in paperwork, and game the system.”

   “A large batch of online trolls have gamed a web contest that promises a Taylor Swift performance at any school in the US. The target? Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.”

4. To perform premeditated seduction strategy.

   “Returning briefly to his journalistic persona to interview Britney Spears, he finds himself gaming her, and she gives him her phone number.”

   “A business associate of mine at the time, George Wu, sat across the way, gaming a stripper the way I taught him.”