[F. écarté, écarter to discard, to throw out cards.] A game of cards for two persons, in playing which the cards from 2 to 6 are excluded. One feature is that a player may ask leave to discard, or throw out certain cards from his hand, and replace them with fresh ones from the pack. Also attrib.
1824. (title) A Treatise on the Game of Ecarté, as played in the first circles of London and Paris.
1844. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s Hist. Ten Y., I. 357. M. Cavaignac threw on an écarté-table in the Louvre a packet of cartridges.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxv. She watched over him kindly at Écarté of a night.
1878. ‘Cavendish’ [Hy. Jones], Ecarté, 21. The game of écarté in some of its features, namely the discard (from which its name is derived) and the score for the king, is of modern origin.
