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sweepstakes - 5 dictionary results
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sweep⋅stakes

  [sweep-steyks]
Use sweepstakes in a Sentence
–noun (used with a singular or plural verb)
1. a race or other contest for which the prize consists of the stakes contributed by the various competitors.
2. the prize itself.
3. a lottery in which winning tickets are selected at random, each winning-ticket number then being matched to one of the horses nominated for or entered in a specific race, and the amounts paid the winners being determined by the finishing order of the horses that run.
4. lottery (def. 2).
5. any gambling transaction in which each of a number of persons contributes a stake, and the stakes are awarded to one or several winners.
6. a risky venture that promises large rewards: the high-tech sweepstakes.
Origin:
1485–95; earlier swepestake orig., a person who won all the stakes in a game; see sweep 1 , stake 2 , -s 3
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sweep⋅stake

  [sweep-steyk]
–noun
a sweepstakes.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To sweepstakes
sweep·stakes   (swēp'stāks')   
pl.n.   (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
  1. A lottery in which the participants' contributions form a fund that is awarded as a prize to one or several winners.
  2. An event or contest, especially a horserace, the result of which determines the winner of such a lottery.
  3. The prize won in such a lottery.
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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Sweepstakes

Sweep"stakes`\, n. 1. A winning of all the stakes or prizes; a sweepstake.

2. sing. or pl. The whole money or other things staked at a horse race, a given sum being put up for each horse, all of which goes to the winner, or is divided among several, as may be previously agreed.

3. A race for all the sums staked or prizes offered.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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sweepstakes 
"prize won in a race or contest," 1773, from M.E. swepestake "one who sweeps or wins all the stakes in a game" (1495, as the name of one of the King's ships), from swepen "sweep" + stake (v).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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