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.
Her most recent book is “Frieze Frame: How Poets, Painters, and their Friends Framed the Debate Around Elgin and the Marbles of the Parthenon.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
Attendees will enjoy a drinks reception and dinner seated amid the museum's artefacts -- including in the Duveen Gallery which houses the disputed Parthenon Marbles -- with a silent auction running through the evening.
From Barron's • Oct. 18, 2025
In November, the PM snubbed his Greek counterpart, cancelling a meeting at short notice after Kyriakos Mitsotakis demanded the return of the Parthenon Marbles during a BBC interview.
From BBC • Jan. 18, 2024
I’m not a decision-maker, but once someone decides to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, my people will have to figure out how to clean them, transport them.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 18, 2024
Marbles were where it was at: a kid could make himself a reputation as a good marble player.
From Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm
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.
