drop the handkerchief

American  

noun

1. a children's game in which all the players but one stand in a circle facing inward, while that one player stealthily drops a handkerchief behind a player in the circle who must pursue and attempt to catch the one who dropped the handkerchief before the latter reaches the vacated place.

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Example Sentences

In Bridgeport, Ohio, when parents complained that members of the high-school football squad were undergoing too strenuous training, Coach Al Blat-nik put them to playing drop the handkerchief.

From Time Magazine Archive

Dated references to streetcars, sleeping powders and the children's game drop the handkerchief will come out.

From Time Magazine Archive

I drop the handkerchief, and Virginia erupts with giggles.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone

There were more games than dances; and the games were largely "kissing" games: "post-office," "clap-in, clap-out," "drop the handkerchief," and such-like innocent infantilities.

From On the Stairs by Fuller, Henry Blake

Mark me, Gentlemen: to prevent mistakes, I shall say, 'One,—two,—three!' and then drop the handkerchief.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 by Various