Dictionary

mumblety peg en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈmʌmb(ə)ltiˌpɛɡ/ (UK)

Etymology

Originally from mumble + the + peg.

Meanings

1. (US, uncountable) Any of several forms of a game in which a jack-knife is thrown so that it sticks into the ground close to the player's feet.
   • Others played mumbletypeg with rusty stolen jackknives, or simply drowsed in the sunlight, waking now and then to exchange their sorry belongings […]. 1967, William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner, Vintage, published 2004, page 296:
   • The frost was working out of the ground, and out of the air, too, and it was getting closer and closer onto barefoot time every day; and next it would be marble time, and next mumbletypeg, and next tops and hoops, and next kites, and then right away it would be summer and going in a-swimming. 1896, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 1, in Tom Sawyer, Detective:
   • Bailey played mumbledypeg with the older boys around the chinaberry tree […] 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 17, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 94:

Forms