parlor game

American  

noun

1. any game usually played indoors, especially in the living room or parlor, as a word game or a quiz, requiring little or no physical activity.

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Etymology

Origin of parlor game

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

Don't call it the "Marty Supreme" effect: table tennis is a growing sport in the United States, in part because of a new professional league giving the parlor game an ultra-competitive edge.

From Barron's

A favorite futurist parlor game involves estimating the percentage of online content currently generated by machines.

From The Wall Street Journal

Cascading revelations, pored over on X and Bluesky, have, in turn, become a parlor game of Choose Your Own Enemy.

From The Wall Street Journal

But he knows that, if a critic can’t draw enlightening connections, attribution is only a parlor game.

From The Wall Street Journal

The fact that it was a parlor game, not pointillism, that inspired the lyric is proof of Sondheim’s credo that “playful doesn’t mean trivial any more than solemn means serious.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• board game