marbles

See also: Marbles

English

Karl Witkowski, Game of Marbles

Noun

marbles pl (plural only)

1. Any of several children's games played with small balls (made of marble or more commonly glass).

   Egyptian boys played marbles before the days of Moses.

2. (figuratively, usually in a limited number of expressions) Sanity.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sanity

   Grandpa's lost his marbles, but at least he still recognizes us.

   Granny's still got all her marbles.

   His lack of marbles is becoming ever more apparent.

   • 2012, J. T. Petty, Bloody Chester, First Second, →ISBN, p. 63:

     —Her daddy's crazy. [...] Think she's looking for something?
     —Treasure, I expect. That or maybe her daddy's marbles.

3. (motor racing) Bits of rolled-up rubber shed by the tires of race cars that accumulate at the edges of the track, especially at the corners.
   • 2014, Amen Zwa, Going Nowhere Fast In Assetto Corsa (2015-05-01), →ISBN, page 395:

     Some corners are littered with marbles, off the racing line.

Derived terms

• all one's marbles
• lose one's marbles

Translations

game

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 弹珠 (zh)

• Dutch: knikkers (nl) pl
• French: billes (fr) f pl

• Italian: marmi (it)
• Maori: hītimi
• Punjabi: ਬੰਟੇ (baṇṭē)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: klinkekuler m pl or f pl

Noun

marbles

1. plural of marble

   Marbles were among the treasures found buried in the ruins of Pompeii.

Verb

marbles

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of marble

Further reading

• marble (toy) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Amblers, amblers, blamers, lambers, rambles