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

It’s become a bit of a media-and-tech parlor game to try to estimate exactly what these losses are, on average.

From Slate • Apr. 14, 2026

The scene where the quartet plays their pre-wedding parlor game occurs about 25 minutes into Borgli’s film, and is ripe with instrumental, pre-twist subtext.

From Salon • Apr. 3, 2026

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 • Mar. 31, 2026

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 • Nov. 21, 2025

At the closing banquet someone mentioned to Mikhail Tal that Bobby, who’d been studying palmistry, was reading the palms of other players, almost as a parlor game.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

Related Words

• board game