Dictionary
Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Translator
Web

gambit

 - 3 dictionary results

gam⋅bit

[gam-bit]
–noun
1. Chess. an opening in which a player seeks to obtain some advantage by sacrificing a pawn or piece.
2. any maneuver by which one seeks to gain an advantage.
3. a remark made to open or redirect a conversation.

Origin:
1650–60; < F < Sp gambito or It gambetto (akin to OF gambet, jambet), equiv. to gamb(a) leg + -etta -et


2. ploy, stratagem, scheme, ruse.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To gambit
gam·bit   (gām'bĭt)   
n.  
  1. An opening in chess in which a minor piece, or pieces, usually a pawn, is offered in exchange for a favorable position.

  2. A maneuver, stratagem, or ploy, especially one used at an initial stage.

  3. A remark intended to open a conversation.


[Ultimately from Spanish gambito, from Italian gambetto, act of tripping someone up in wrestling, from gamba, leg, from Old Italian; see gambol.]
Usage Note: Critics familiar with the nature of chess gambits have sometimes maintained that the word should not be used in an extended sense except to refer to maneuvers that involve a tactical sacrifice or loss for some advantage. But gambit is well established in the general sense of "maneuver" and in the related sense of "a remark intended to open a conversation," which usually carries no implication of sacrifice.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Computing Dictionary

Gambit language
A variant of Scheme R3.99 supporting the future construct of Multilisp by Marc Feeley . Implementation includes optimising compilers for Macintosh (with Toolbox and built-in editor) and Motorola 680x0 Unix systems and HP300, BBN GP100 and NeXT. Version 2.0 conforms to the IEEE Scheme standard.
Gambit used PVM as its intermediate language.
(ftp://acorn.cs.brandeis.edu/dist), (ftp://ftp.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/amiga/fish/f7/ff764/Gambit_Terp). (ftp://ftp.iro.umontreal.ca/pub/parallele/gambit/).
Mailing list: gambit@trex.umontreal.ca.
(1998-02-10)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
Cite This Source
Search another word or see gambit on Thesaurus | Reference
FacebookTwitterFollow us: