Citations:preference

sense: card game

• c. 1851, Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford, chapter 8:

  The friendship begun over bread and butter extended on to cards. Lady Glenmire played Preference to admiration, and was a complete authority as to Ombre and Quadrille.

• 1895?, Constance Garnett, translation of, 1852, Ivan Turgenev, "The District Doctor", 2010 Project Gutenberg edition:

  " […] Well, shall it be preference?"

  We sat down to preference for halfpenny points.

• 1903?, Isabel F. Hapgood?, translation of, 1852, Ivan Turgenieff, "The District Doctor" [1]:

  " […] But how about that game of preference?"

  We sat down to play preference, for kopék stakes.

• 1916, Constance Garnett, translation of, 1872, Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Possessed, 2005 Project Gutenberg edition, part 1, chapter 5 ("The Subtle Serpent"), section 6:

  He used to spend his time chiefly in playing preference with a greasy old pack of cards for stakes of a quarter-farthing with clerks.

• 2003, Harrison E. Salisbury, The 900 days: the siege of Leningrad, page 251:

  Even the men in the compartment where an endless game of preference was in progress played with stealthy quietness. The Lieutenant General, whistling under his breath, named his suit.