playgamen.
/ˈpleɪɡeɪm/, U.S. /ˈpleɪˌɡeɪm/ A game, an amusement, a pastime; (occasionally) a plaything. Also: something easy, a doddle.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > [noun]
playeOE
gameeOE
disportc1380
sportc1443
museryc1450
pastime?1473
gaud1587
playgame1596
exercise1622
amusement1632
evagation1638
retirement1641
divertisement1642
diversiona1684
ploya1689
lounge1788
divertissement1804
happening1959
letterboxing1977
timepass1982
1596 P. Colse Penelopes Complaint sig. D For war's a play-game, they suppose, That neuer tasted bloudie blowes.
1598 R. Barckley Disc. Felicitie of Man i. 61 They esteeme this our life to be but a play-game.
1632 J. Hayward tr. G. F. Biondi Eromena 30 A small Barke..that had beene rob'd by Pirates, and left as a play-game to the windes.
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World xviii. 496 I had been in many eminent dangers before now,..but the worst of them all was but a play-game, in comparison with this.
1741 S. Richardson Pamela IV. lvii. 366 Mr. Locke gives a great many very pretty Instructions relating to the Play-games of Children.
1798 C. Lamb Written Year after Events in Blank Verse 83 O where be now those sports, And infant play-games?
1835 J. P. Kennedy Horse Shoe Robinson (1852) lvi. 576 Here I am in the field, amongst men, and no play-game is it, either, to keep us busy, but downright earnest battle.
1891 E. Arnold Light of World i. 67 Was't, then, Apollo, masquing here below? Or some Olympian? great Latona's son At play-games 'midst us?
1972 Evening Telegram (St. John's, Newfoundland) 24 June 3/1 I won't be spending such a week as the one just past. All jokes aside, it has been no playgame.
1999 Wisconsin State Jrnl. (Nexis) 10 Apr. 6 c The cost is..$8 for both days for people interested in playgames.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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