| 1. | all four limbs or extremities; the four legs or feet of an animal or both arms and both legs or both hands and both feet of a person: The cat rolled off the ledge but landed on all fours. |
| 2. | (used with a singular verb ) Also called high-low-jack, old sledge, pitch, seven-up. Cards. a game for two or three players or two partnerships in which a 52-card pack is used, the object being to win special scoring values for the highest trump, the lowest trump, the jack, the ace, the ten, and the face cards. |
| 3. | on all fours,
|
| all fours pl.n. (used with a sing. verb) Any of several card games resembling whist and in which points are scored in four ways: for the high trump, the low trump, the jack of trumps, and the game. |
four  (fôr, fōr)  n.
[Middle English, from Old English fēower; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots.] four adj. & pron. |
all fours
ancestor of a family of card games dating back to 17th-century England and first mentioned in The Complete Gamester of Charles Cotton in 1674. The face card formerly known as the knave owes its modern name of jack to this game. Originally, all fours was regarded as a lower-class game-it was much played by African Americans on slave plantations-but in the 19th century it broadened its social horizons and gave rise to more-elaborate games such as cinch, pitch, smear, and don, which include partnership play, bidding, or additional scoring cards
Learn more about all fours with a free trial on Britannica.com.