canasta
Americannoun
noun
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a card game for two to six players who seek to amass points by declaring sets of cards
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Also called: meld. a declared set in this game, containing seven or more like cards, worth 500 points if the canasta is pure or 300 if wild (containing up to three jokers)
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of canasta
1945–50; < Spanish: literally, basket, apparently variant of canastro < Greek kánastron wicker basket ( see canister)
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.
Four patrol cars are stationed near the intersection of Whittier Boulevard and South Boyle Avenue in Boyle Heights — near the site where a street vendor plies tacos de canasta.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2022
You’re not a canasta club; you’re a Zen center, one that’s presumably devoted to contemplative care and support for participants.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2022
Once, Messersmith and his roommate, catcher John Olerud, rallied to beat teammates Jim Coates and Marty Pattin in a tense game of canasta.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 20, 2022
The “bible”, a kind of taco encyclopedia which he plans to publish, was the foundation for the show’s six episodes on barbacoa, carnitas, carne asada, tacos de canasta, guisados, and al pastor.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 3, 2020
Mami and Mrs. Washburn and Mrs. Mancini—in fact, the whole canasta group—are not about to let their kids grow up dumb brutos just because of a dictatorship.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
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.
