spillikins en · NOUN
Meanings
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(uncountable) A game in which players attempt to remove flat, carved sticks of ivory or wood (the individual spillikins of meaning 1) from a scattered pile without disturbing any stick other than the one currently being removed.
Spillikins is a game of skill.
Spillikins is played the same way that early versions of Jack Straw and the American “pick up sticks” are.
2013 August 16, Laura Boyle, “Spillikins”, in Jane Austen .co.uk, retrieved 27 May 2015:Charlie loves playing spillikins.
But she was much too impatient to be good at spillikins, moving them too fast, not wheedling them out by delicate degrees. (page 109) After the news of Bunty’s father, Emily became increasingly quiet and withdrawn. [...] Her homework done, she sat playing endless solitary games – of patience or spillikins or draughts. (page 158)
1969, Penelope Farmer, Charlotte Sometimes, London: Vintage Books, published 2013, →ISBN:Our little visitor has just left us [...].–Half her time here was spent at Spillikins; which I consider as a very valuable part of our Household furniture, & as not the least important Benefaction– from the family of Knight to that of Austen.
1807, Jane Austen, Letters (1796-1817), letter to her sister Cassandra, February 8, 1807:
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(form-of, plural) plural of spillikin
form of spillikin
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spillikins | alternative | lexicographic | |
| spellicans | alternative | lexicographic |
Hypernyms
tabletop game · game of skill · pick-up sticks
Translations (22)
ja 竹籤 (a game of skill) · pt mikado (a game of skill) · yue 五色竹籤 /五色竹签 (a game of skill) · fr jonchets (a game of skill) · de Mikado (a game of skill) · ru бирю́льки (a game of skill) · fr honchets (a game of skill) · pl bierki (a game of skill) · ru игра́ в бирю́льки (a game of skill) · pt pega-varetas (a game of skill) · es palillos (a game of skill) · it shangai (a game of skill) · ja 竹ひご (a game of skill) · cmn 挑棒等 (a game of skill) · sv plockepinn (a game of skill) · it sciangai (a game of skill) · cmn 挑竹籤 /挑竹签 (a game of skill) · fr jeu de jonchets (a game of skill) · es palitos chinos (a game of skill) · cmn 挑棍 (a game of skill) · bg микадо (a game of skill) · cmn 五色竹籤 /五色竹签 (a game of skill)