subs. (old).—1. The proceeds of a robbery; SWAG (q.v.).
1676. A Warning for House-keepers. Song.
| For when that we have bit the bloe, | |
| We carry away the GAME. |
2. (old).—A company of whores. A GAME-PULLET = a young prostitute, or a girl inclined to lechery; cf., adj., sense 8.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. … also a Bawdy house, lewd women.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. GAME … Mother, have you any GAME, Mother, have you any girls?
3. (old).—A gull; a simpleton. For synonyms, see BUFFLE and CABBAGE-HEAD.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew. GAME, c. Bubbles drawn in to be cheated.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
4. (thieves’).—Specifically, THE GAME = thieving; also (nautical), slave trading; and (venery), the practice of copulation (e.g., good at THE GAME = an expert and vigorous bedfellow. Cf., SHAKESPEARE, Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5, ‘Spoils of opportunity, daughters of the GAME’). In quot. (1639) it would seem that HEN OF THE GAME = a shrew, a fighting woman.
1639–61. Rump, ii., 185. ‘A Free-Parliament Letany.’ From a Dunghill Cock and a HEN OF THE GAME.
1640. Ladies’ Parliament.
| Stamford she is for THE GAME, | |
| She saies her husband is to blame, | |
| For her part she loves a foole, | |
| If he hath a good toole. |
1668. ETHEREGE, She Would if She Could, i., 1. A gentleman should not have gone out of his chambers but some civil officer of the GAME or other would have … given him notice where he might have had a course or two in the afternoon.
17[?]. BURNS, The Merry Muses, ‘Jenny Macraw’ (old song). Jenny Macraw was a bird of THE GAME.
1839. BRANDON, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, Glossary. On THE GAME—thieving.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i., 263. Whether the GAME got stale, or Peter became honest, is beyond the purport of my communication to settle.
1852. SNOWDEN, Magistrates Assistant (3rd ed.), p. 444, s.v.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. The particular line of rascality the rogue is engaged in; thieving; cheating.
1860. Chambers’s Journal, Vol. 13, p. 281. I asked him if he meant by a trading voyage, the GAME.
5. (colloquial).—A source of amusement; a LARK (q.v.): a BARNEY (q.v.); as, e.g., It was such a GAME!
6. (colloquial).—A design; trick; object; line of conduct: e.g., What’s your little GAME = What are you after? Also, None of your little GAMES! = None of your tricks! See HIGH OLD GAME.
1854. WHYTE-MELVILLE, General Bounce, ch. ix. Honesty, indeed! if honesty’s the GAME, you’ve a right to your share, what Mrs. Kettering intended you should have.
1857. DUCANGE ANGLICUS, pseud. The Vulgar Tongue, p. 9. GAME n. Intention. ‘What’s your GAME?’ or, ‘What are you up to?’ (very generally used).
1870. Standard, 27 Sept. If we accept the meaner GAME which the Times indicates for us, it can only be by deliberate choice.
1879. JUSTIN MCCARTHY, Donna Quixote, ch. xiii. Come, what’s your little GAME?
1883. EDW. E. MORRIS, in Longman’s Magazine, June, p. 176. A youth, who left England, and then carried on the same GAME in Australia.
1889. Standard, 1 May, p. 5, c. 1. The ‘GAME of law and order’ is not up, in Paris.
1890. Punch, 30 Aug., p. 97. Mug’s GAME! They’ll soon find as the Marsters ain’t going to be worried and welched.
1891. J. NEWMAN, Scamping Tricks, p. 46. She … knew how to work THE GAME of fascination right.
1892. R. L. STEVENSON and L. OSBOURNE, The Wrecker, p. 349, ‘It was the thing in your times, that’s right enough; but you’re old now, and THE GAME’S up.
Adj. (old).—1. Plucky; enduring; full of spirit and BOTTOM (q.v.). [Cock-pit and pugilists’. The word may be said to have passed into the language with the rise to renown of Harry Pearce, surnamed the GAME CHICKEN.]
1747. CAPTN. J. GODFREY, A Treatise upon the Useful Science of Defence, p. 64. Smallwood (a boxer) is thorough GAME, with judgement equal to any, and superior to most.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 57. Pitying rais’d from earth the GAME old man.
1821. P. EGAN, Tom and Jerry (ed. 1891), p. 38. Tom, however, was too GAME to acknowledge any sort of alarm at this slight visitation.
1823. G. KENT, Modern Flash Dictionary, s.v. GAME—courageous, sturdy, hardy, hardened.
1827. REYNOLDS (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy. ‘The Fields of Tothill.’
| The highest in the Fancy—all the GAME ones | |
| Who were not very much beneath her weight. |
1855. A. TROLLOPE, The Warden, ch. viii. He was a most courageous lad, GAME to the backbone.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 19 June, p. 395. The round had lasted sixteen minutes, and no one present had ever seen GAMER or more determined fighting.
2. (common).—Ready; willing; prepared. [Also from cock-fighting. See sense 1].
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, p. 99 (ed. 1857). ‘All alive to-day, I suppose?’ ‘Regular GAME, sir.’
1856. C. READE, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, ch. xxi. I’m GAME to try.
1865. Bentley, p. 182, ‘The Excursion Train.’
| Again to London back we came | |
| The day the excursion ticket said, | |
| And really both of us felt GAME | |
| To travel round the world instead. |
1880. Punch’s Almanack.
| Got three quid; have cried a go with Fan, | |
| GAME to spend my money like a man. |
1891. FARJEON, The Mystery of M. Felix, p. 103. ‘I’m GAME,’ said Sophy, to whom any task of this kind was especially inviting.
1891. HUME NISBET, Bail Up! p. 51. ‘Yes, I am GAMEY, you bet!’ exclaimed the Chinaman, softly.
1891. J. NEWMAN, Scamping Tricks, p. 121. It is nearly midnight. I am GAME for another hour, are you?
3. (old).—Lame; crooked; disabled: as in GAME LEG.
1787. GROSE, A Provincial Glossary, etc. GAME-LEG, a lame leg.
1824. SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. i. Catching hold of the devil’s GAME LEG with his episcopal crook.
1851. BORROW, Lavengro, ch. lxvii., p. 204 (1888). Mr. Platitude, having what is vulgarly called a GAME LEG, came shambling into the room.
1875. PAYN, Walter’s Word, ch. i. Well, you see, old fellow, with a GAME-arm (his left arm is in a sling), and a GAME-leg (he has limped across the platform with the aid of his friend, and also of a crutch), one feels a little helpless.
4. (thieves’).—Knowing; wide-awake; and (of women) FLASH (q.v.), or inclined to venery. E.g., GAME-COVE = an associate of thieves; GAME-woman = a prostitute: i.e., a woman who is GAME (sense 2); GAME-PULLET (GROSE) = a girl that will show sport, a female GAME-COCK; GAME-SHIP (old) = a ship whose commander and officers could be corrupted by bribes to allow the cargo to be stolen (CLARK RUSSELL).
1676. ETHEREGE, The Man of Mode, ii. Go on, be the GAME mistress of the town and entice all our young fops as fast as they come from travel.
COCK OF THE GAME, subs. phr. (old).—A champion; an undoubted blood; a star of magnitude (cock-pit).
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, iii., 329.
| Go all you tame gallants you that have the name, | |
| And would accounted be COCKS OF THE GAME. |
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, xiv. I have seen a dung-hill chicken that you meant to have picked clean enough; it will be long ere his lordship ruffles a feather with a COCK OF THE GAME.
TO MAKE GAME OF, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To turn into ridicule; to delude; to humbug.
1671. MILTON, Samson Agonistes, 1331.
| Do they not seek occasion of new quarrels, | |
| On my refusal, to distress me more; | |
| Or MAKE A GAME of my calamities? |
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew. What you GAME me? c. do you jeer me, or pretend to expose me, to MAKE A MAY-GAME OF me.
1745. History of the Coldstream Guards, 25 Oct. If the militia are reviewed to-morrow by his Majesty, the soldiers of the third regiment of Guards are to behave civilly and not to laugh or to MAKE ANY GAME OF them.
TO DIE GAME, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To maintain a resolute attitude to the last; to show no contrition.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. TO DIE GAME, to suffer at the gallows without showing any signs of fear or repentance.
1815. SCOTT, Guy Mannering, ch. liv. The ruffian lay perfectly still and silent. ‘He’s gaun to die GAME ony how,’ said Dinmont.
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers (ed. 1857), p. 303. I say that the coachman did not run away; but that he DIED GAME—GAME as pheasants; and I won’t hear nothin’ said to the contrary.
1869. SPENCER, The Study of Sociology, ch. viii., p. 183 (9 ed.). Nor should we forget the GAME-cock, supplying, as it does, a word of eulogy to the mob of roughs who witness the hanging of a murderer, and who half condone his crime if he DIES GAME.
1871. Times, 30 Jan. Critique on London, etc. The principal was acquitted, and though his accomplices were hung in Pall Mall at the scene of their act, they DIED GAME.
TO GET AGAINST THE GAME, verb. phr. (American).—To take a risk; to chance it. [From the game of poker].
TO PLAY THE GAME, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To do a thing properly; to do what is right and proper.
1889. DRAGE, Cyril, ch. vii. I really think he is … not PLAYING THE GAME.
