lotto
[lot-oh]
- a game of chance in which a leader draws numbered disks at random from a stock and the players cover the corresponding numbers on their cards, the winner being the first to cover a complete row.
- a lottery, as one operated by a state government, in which players choose numbers that are matched against those of the official drawing, the winning numbers typically paying large cash prizes.
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Origin of lotto
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for lotto
Contemporary Examples
Lotto is propped up by the notion that “Hey, you never know” though of course you do know—you know that you will not win.
The one-in-a-million chance is exactly that—a small but real chance, as any lotto winner will tell you.
Applying for a permit is kind of like playing the Lotto, but with worse odds.
Whenever I say, ‘Oh, can I have my lotto number, the newspaper?’
Historical Examples
Lipinski, Wieniawski, and Lotto were all educated in the Paris school.
The ViolinGeorge Hart
Why, I am anything but a spring chicken, yet Lotto was an old game when I was young.
CampingAlexandra G. Lockwine
In my young days a game of lotto was introduced in the clubs.
What Shall We Do?Leo Tolstoy
This is a game similar to the "lotto" we used to play as children.
A Yankee in the TrenchesR. Derby Holmes
In the end he begins to attitudinise and to display those artificial graces which were presently accentuated by Lotto.
The Venetian School of PaintingEvelyn March Phillipps
lotto
- Also called: housey-housey a children's game in which numbered discs, counters, etc, are drawn at random and called out, while the players cover the corresponding numbers on cards, the winner being the first to cover all the numbers, a particular row, etcCompare bingo
- a lottery
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Word Origin
C18: from Italian, from Old French lot, from Germanic. See lot
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for lotto
n.
1778, "type of card game," from French loto and directly from Italian lotto "a lot," from Old French lot "lot, share, reward, prize," from Frankish or some other Germanic source (cf. Old English and Old Frisian hlot; see lot (n.)). Meaning "a lottery, a game of chance" is attested from 1787.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper