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marbles

/ˈmɑrbəlz/
/ˈmɑbəlz/
IPA guide

Marbles is the name of a game that you play with the round glass balls also called marbles. A World Marbles Championship has been held each year in Britain since 1932. Don't miss it this year.

Marbles is a game that involves rolling marbles on a sidewalk, inside a marked circle. Players shoot or flick their marbles with their thumbs, aiming "shooters," larger marbles, at the smaller ones, and trying to keep their own marbles inside the circle while hitting other players' marbles out of it. Doing this gives the player a point, and they also get to keep the marble. To "lose your marbles" comes from American slang and means "go crazy."

Definitions of marbles
  1. noun
    a children's game played with little balls made of a hard substance (as glass)
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    type of:
    child's game
    a game enjoyed by children
  2. noun
    the basic human power of intelligent thought and perception
    “he still had all his marbles and was in full possession of a lively mind”
    synonyms: wits
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    type of:
    intelligence
    the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience
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