conker
Americannoun
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conkers
plural
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a horse chestnut.
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the hollowed-out shell of a horse chestnut.
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conkers, a game in which a child swings a horse chestnut on a string in an attempt to break that of another player.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of conker
1840–50; probably originally conquer; compare conquering a game played with snail shells (the name of the game presumably later transferred to the playing pieces)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The single combat involves swinging a conker -- a hardened horse chestnut -- on a string at your opponent's nut with murderous venom, until one is smashed to pieces.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2025
And they were needed, with one man disqualified for trying to smuggle a non-conforming conker in.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2025
The "second biggest conker competition in the world" took place at The Locks Inn at Geldeston, near Beccles, on the Norfolk-Suffolk border earlier this month.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2024
Each player took three alternate strikes at the opponent's conker.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2024
It was lovely being high up there in that conker tree, all alone with the pale young leaves coming out everywhere around me.
From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl
More than 2,000 conkers had been prepared prior to the event.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2024
All participants were required to follow a stringent set of rules to ensure the event was as fair as possible, which included the conkers and laces being provided by organisers.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2024
All the conkers used in the event are supplied by the organisers and players draw them "blind" from a bag.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2024
A mature horse chestnut, it is festooned with glorious blooms every spring, and after a few weeks sheds hundreds of partially grown, supernumerary conkers, encased in spiky green coverings.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024
But at least the conkers was something to watch.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
