52-card pickup
American
[fif-tee too-kahrd pik-uhp]
/ ˈfɪf tiˈtuˌkɑrd ˈpɪk ʌp /
noun
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a prankish card game; a practical joke in which a game is presumed, but instead all the cards from a standard deck are scattered into the air and have to be picked up.
-
any of various card games that involve plays made from a deck of scattered cards.
Etymology
Origin of 52-card pickup
First recorded in 1940–45
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.