fan-tan
Americannoun
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Also called sevens. Also called parliament. Cards. Also fan tan a game in which the players play their sevens and other cards forming sequences in the same suits as their sevens, the winner being the player who first runs out of cards.
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a Chinese gambling game in which a pile of coins, counters, or objects is placed under a bowl and bets are made on what the remainder will be after they have been counted off in fours.
noun
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a Chinese gambling game in which a random number of counters are placed under a bowl and wagers laid on how many will remain after they have been divided by four
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a card game played in sequence, the winner being the first to use up all his or her cards
Etymology
Origin of fan-tan
First recorded in 1875–80; from Chinese fān tān literally “repeated divisions”
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.
One of the work’s six parts features a fan-tan pipa, a dancer who plays the pipa.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 3, 2022
Everyone from young couples to old ladies jostle around the blackjack and fan-tan tables.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the fall of 1916 Cal was watching the fan-tan game at Shorty Lim’s one night when the raid scooped him up.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
The boy looked in on the fan-tan games in China-town, but he didn’t play.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
“You lost your money in a fan-tan game.”
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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.
