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écarté

[ey-kahr-tey; British ey-kahr-tey; French ey-kar-tey]
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noun
  1. a card game for two players.
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Origin of écarté

Borrowed into English from French around 1815–25
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for ecarte

Historical Examples

  • Ecarte and lansquenet were almost as much out of the question.

    The Daltons, Volume I (of II)

    Charles James Lever

  • Have a game of ecarte till I come back, unless you would like to wait for me.

    Virgin Soil

    Ivan S. Turgenev

  • I owe the Russian Prince 300 louis, lost to him last night at ecarte.

    The Parisians, Complete

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton

  • Godolphin sat apart from the talkers playing a quiet game at ecarte.

    Godolphin, Complete

    Edward Bulwer-Lytton

  • You will say, Why not take to backgammon, or ecarte, or amuse yourself with a book?

    The Fitz-Boodle Papers

    William Makepeace Thackeray

British Dictionary definitions for ecarte

écarté

noun
  1. a card game for two, played with 32 cards and king high
  2. ballet
    1. a body position in which one arm and the same leg are extended at the side of the body
    2. (as adjective)the écarté position
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Word Origin

C19: from French, from écarter to discard, from carte card 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ecarte

n.

card game for two played with 32 cards, 1824, from French écarté, literally "discarded," past participle of écarter "to discard," from e- (see ex-) + carte (see card (n.)).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper