Dictionary

pattycake en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpætikeɪk/ (General-American)

Meanings

1. (qualifier:children's games, uncountable) A children's game in which two people alternately clap their own and each other's hands, often to the accompaniment of the nursery rhyme "Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man".
2. (colloquial, uncountable) A childish or time-wasting activity.
   • This Cherokee County Sheriff goes about two-fifty and he don't play pattycake. He's gonna wanna know where you were yesterday. 2001, Dennis J. Reardon, Plays, page 31:
   • “Stalin's boys don't play pattycake with people like Mr. Kravchenko.” 2007, Gary Kern, The Kravchenko Case: One Man's War on Stalin, page 67:

Forms

Translations (5)

es arepitas (children's game in which two people alternately clap their own and each other's hands) · pt adoleta (children's game in which two people alternately clap their own and each other's hands) · nl handjeklap (children's game in which two people alternately clap their own and each other's hands) · ru ла́душки (children's game in which two people alternately clap their own and each other's hands) · nl handjeplak (children's game in which two people alternately clap their own and each other's hands)