tiddlywinks
/ˈtɪdəlɪwɪŋks/
tiddlywinks · noun — A competitive game in which the objective is to flick as many small discs (each called a tiddlywink or wink) as possible into a container (the pot) by pressing on their edges with a larger disc (a shooter or squidger), causing them to jump up from the surface on which they are placed.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tiddlywinks ranks #10,506 of 42,862 for Qualifying.
tiddlywinks is pronounced /ˈtɪdəlɪwɪŋks/.
Etymology
From tiddlywink + -s, possibly from tiddly (“(informal) little, tiny”) + wink (“blinking of one eye”), perhaps borrowed from tiddlywink, etymology 1 (“unlicensed beerhouse or pawnshop; game played using dominoes”, etc.). The game was patented by a British bank clerk, Joseph Assheton Fincher (1863–1900), on 19 October 1889, and the name Tiddledy-Winks trademarked by him the same year. Tiddlywinks is the preferred modern spelling; the earliest known use of this spelling dates from 1894.
noun
- A competitive game in which the objective is to flick as many small discs (each called a tiddlywink or wink) as possible into a container (the pot) by pressing on their edges with a larger disc (a shooter or squidger), causing them to jump up from the surface on which they are placed.
- Especially in the form to play tiddlywinks: a meaningless or unimportant activity.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- squidger 70% match — The round disk used to play winks in the game of tiddlywinks. vs tiddlywinks →
- tiddlywink 66% match — An unlicensed beerhouse or pawnshop. vs tiddlywinks →
- squop 58% match — To play a wink so that it comes to rest vertically above some or all parts of another wink. vs tiddlywinks →
- quoits 55% match — A competitive game in which players throw rings, aiming to land them over vertical sticks. vs tiddlywinks →
- crokinole 52% match — A game, popular in Canada, in which wooden discs are flicked towards the centre of a circular board. vs tiddlywinks →
- kittlepins 52% match — The game of skittles. vs tiddlywinks →
- pichenotte 51% match — A French-Canadian tabletop game in which players attempt to flick each other's round pieces off the board. vs tiddlywinks →
- thimblerig 51% match — A game of skill which requires the bettor to guess under which of three small cups (or thimbles) a pea-sized object has been placed after the party operating the game rapidly rearranges them, providing opportunity for sleight-of-hand trickery; a shell game. vs tiddlywinks →