conker
Americannoun
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a horse chestnut.
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the hollowed-out shell of a horse chestnut.
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conkers, a game in which a child swings a horse chestnut on a string in an attempt to break that of another player.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of conker
1840–50; probably originally conquer; compare conquering a game played with snail shells (the name of the game presumably later transferred to the playing pieces)
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.
See Examples For:
The single combat involves swinging a conker -- a hardened horse chestnut -- on a string at your opponent's nut with murderous venom, until one is smashed to pieces.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2025
And they were needed, with one man disqualified for trying to smuggle a non-conforming conker in.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2025
The "second biggest conker competition in the world" took place at The Locks Inn at Geldeston, near Beccles, on the Norfolk-Suffolk border earlier this month.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2024
The ideal conker would be "perfectly round", says David Jakins, King Conker of the World Conker Championships.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2023
Her voice, I noticed, had that same hard metallic quality as the voice of the witch I had met under the conker tree, only it was far louder and much much harsher.
From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl
There had been fears the event would be cancelled for only the third time in its history due to the hot, dry summer, which caused conkers to fall from trees early.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2025
All participants were required to follow a stringent set of rules to ensure the event was as fair as possible, which included the conkers and laces being provided by organisers.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2024
She now helps out by picking good nuts and threading about 2,000 conkers for battle.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2024
Recent storms had blown hundreds of conkers out of the trees, raising concerns that they might rot before the big day.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2024
This, we decided, would be our secret hiding place for sweets and other small treasures such as conkers and monkey-nuts and birds’ eggs.
From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl
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.
