marbles
Britishnoun
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(functioning as singular) a game in which marbles are rolled at one another, similar to bowls
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informal (functioning as plural) wits
to lose one's marbles
Explanation
Marbles is the name of a game that you play with the round glass balls also called marbles. A World Marbles Championship has been held each year in Britain since 1932. Don't miss it this year. Marbles is a game that involves rolling marbles on a sidewalk, inside a marked circle. Players shoot or flick their marbles with their thumbs, aiming "shooters," larger marbles, at the smaller ones, and trying to keep their own marbles inside the circle while hitting other players' marbles out of it. Doing this gives the player a point, and they also get to keep the marble. To "lose your marbles" comes from American slang and means "go crazy."
Vocabulary lists containing marbles
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.
"The other founders refused to turn the keys of artificial intelligence over to one person," Savitt continued, adding: "When they refused to let OpenAI be absorbed" Musk "took his marbles and went home."
From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026
But Lee marbles other theories and indictments into his meat concerning the privilege of extreme emotion and behavioral honesty.
From Salon • Apr. 23, 2026
In the tests, the team dropped marbles into sand that contained scattered pieces of painted gravel representing boulders on Dimorphos.
From Science Daily • Mar. 8, 2026
In Ball Sort Puzzle, you are shown a screen featuring several test tubes that contain marbles of various colors.
From Slate • Dec. 28, 2024
Then every morning Luc would quiz me in person before my shift began, correcting my pronunciation, having me repeat the terms until they rolled off my tongue smooth as marbles.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
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.
