spillikins

British  

/ ˈspɪlɪkɪnz /

noun

1. Also called: jackstraws.  (functioning as singular) a game in which players try to pick each spillikin from a heap without moving any of the others

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Etymology

Origin of spillikins

C18: from _spill ² + diminutive ending. See _-kin

Example Sentences

And on the floor nearby is a heap of maulsticks arranged like spillikins, or pick-up sticks – remove one and the whole circle would be disturbed.

From The Guardian • May 19, 2012

"Hammett gave murder back to the people who commit it," said Chandler, who found the details of British mysteries as unexciting as "spillikins in the parlor."

From Time Magazine Archive

So there was the situation till the war of Ninety-three came along to jumble us all up and knock everything to spillikins.

From Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas by Osbourne, Lloyd

Mrs. Leyburn's mind was just now playing the part of spillikins, and the vicar's wife was shaking it vigorously, though with occasional qualms as to the lawfulness of the process.

From Robert Elsmere by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

These rocks, these blocks, these peaks, these streaks, these cones, these cracks, these ramparts, these escarpments,—what are they but a set of spillikins, though I acknowledge on a grand scale?

From All Around the Moon by Roth, Edward