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end game

or endgame

noun

  1. Chess. the final stage of a game, usually following the exchange of queens and the serious reduction of forces.
  2. the late or final stages of any activity:

    the end game of the negotiations.



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Word History and Origins

Origin of end game1

First recorded in 1880–85

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Idioms and Phrases

The final stage of some process, as in The book discussed the diplomatic end game resulting in the treaty . This term, dating from about 1880, comes from chess, where it denotes the stage of a game when most of the pieces have been removed from the board. In the mid-1900s it began to be transferred to other activities.

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Example Sentences

With this hideous bushy outcrop, the beard has reached its end game.

Less clear is the end game for the committee, which calls into question the need for its existence.

But what is the end game here, and what are the unintended consequences of imbuing a robotic device with cuteness?

But we should have no illusions that we all share the same end game.

And no end-game for any sort of involvement has yet been outlined by proponents of American action.

Isolated Pawns in an end game are often weak, whilst Pawns on adjoining files are generally strong.

Nevertheless, it aptly illustrates an important principle in end game play, and is well worthy of careful study.

The handling of the King becomes of paramount importance once the end-game stage is reached.

Pal of a poacher that's thick with one of these West End game-mongers.

As an end game, this is rather a sad exhibition for two masters.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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