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backgammon - 7 dictionary results

back⋅gam⋅mon

  [bak-gam-uhn, bak-gam-]
Use backgammon in a Sentence
–noun
1. a game for two persons played on a board having two tables or parts, each marked with 12 points, and with both players having 15 pieces that are moved in accordance with throws of the dice.
2. a victory at this game, esp. one resulting in a tripled score.
–verb (used with object)
3. to defeat at backgammon, esp. to win a triple score over.
Origin:
1635–45; back 2 + gammon 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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back·gam·mon   (bāk'gām'ən)   
n.  A board game for two persons, played with pieces whose moves are determined by throws of dice.

[back1 + gammon1.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Backgammon

Back"gam`mon\, n. [Origin unknown; perhaps fr. Dan. bakke tray + E. game; or very likely the first part is from E. back, adv., and the game is so called because the men are often set back.] A game of chance and skill, played by two persons on a "board" marked off into twenty-four spaces called "points". Each player has fifteen pieces, or "men", the movements of which from point to point are determined by throwing dice. Formerly called tables.

Backgammon board, a board for playing backgammon, often made in the form of two rectangular trays hinged together, each tray containing two "tables".

Backgammon

Back"gam`mon\, v. i. In the game of backgammon, to beat by ending the game before the loser is clear of his first "table".
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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backgammon

See bignum (sense 3), moby (sense 4), and pseudoprime.
Jargon File 4.2.0
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backgammon 
1645, baggammon, the second element from M.E. gamen, ancestor of Mod.E. game; the first element because pieces are sometimes forced to go "back." Known 13c.-17c. as tables.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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backgammon
See bignum, moby, pseudoprime.
[The Jargon File]

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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