Formerly also uker, yuker, eucre. [Of uncertain etymology.
As BOWER sb.8, one of the terms used in this game, is of Ger. origin, it has often been supposed that the word euchre is also from German, but no probable source has been found in that lang. Can it be a. Sp. yuca, in the phrase ser yuca, given by Caballero as an American expression for ‘to be cock of the walk, to get the best in anything’ (ser el gallito en alguna cosa, sobresalir en algo)?]
1. A game at cards, of American origin, played by 2, 3, or 4 persons, with a pack of 32 cards (the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of each suit being rejected). A player may, if he pleases, ‘pass’ or decline to play, but if he undertakes to play, and fails to take 3 tricks, he or his side is said to be ‘euchred’ and the other side gains two points.
The highest cards at Euchre are the knave of trumps and the other knave of the same color (see BOWER sb.8); the other cards used rank as in whist. There are various modifications of the game, as Railroad Euchre, played with the usual 32 cards and an extra blank card called ‘the joker,’ or ‘imperial trump,’ which is superior to all; French Euchre, played with 24 cards; and others.
1846. in Smedes & Marshall, Rep. High Court App. Mississippi (1847), 60. No matter whether defendants played at pool, whist, uker, poker, [etc.]. Ibid. Whist, yuker, brag, &c.
1850. (title) The game of Euchre, with its Laws.
1856. Mayne Reid, Quadroon, II. xviii. 180 The thing was impossible, as I had never played Euchre.
1863. Dicey, Federal St., II. 57. The men … played the mysterious game of ‘euchre.’
1870. B. Harte, Heathen Chinee, 19.
| Which we had a small game, | |
| And Ah Sin took a hand; | |
| It was euchre. The same | |
| He did not understand. |
1872. ‘Mark Twain,’ Roughing It, xxiii. 175. At night, by the camp-fire, we played euchre and seven-up, to strengthen the mind.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Feb., 3/2. Euchre was probably acclimatized on the Mississippi by the Canadian voyageurs, being a form of the French game of triomphe.
2. An instance of ‘euchreing’ or being ‘euchred.’
1875. Amer. Hoyle (ed. 10), 81. No. 1 deals, but … fearing a Euchre, he turns down the trump.
Hence Euchreist, a player at euchre.
1861. W. H. Russell, in Times, 10 July, 5/4. 10 July, 5/. The sentry tells his captain, who is an euchreist, that ‘It’s all right,’ and resumes his seat and his cigar.
