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Glite Dictionary
mumblety-peg

mumblety-peg

1 9.9
A game where players throw a pocketknife so it sticks in the ground
  • noun
  • /ˈmʌmbəltiˌpɛg/
  • Archaic
translation icon : mumblety-peg
  • Play mumblety-peg.
  • play mumblety-peg

Examples

  • Marbles, mumblety-peg, horseshoes...

    It Runs in the Family (1994)

  • The children gathered in a circle to play mumblety-peg, carefully throwing their jackknives to see whose would land upright.

  • After school, we would often play mumblety-peg in the yard, trying to get our knives to stick in the grass.

  • He taught his younger brother how to play mumblety-peg, explaining the rules as they took turns flipping their knives.

Synonyms

mumble-the-peg
vsmumblety-peg
  • Archaic
9.9

A children's game where players throw a small knife to make it stick in the ground

has identical meaning but uses an alternative hyphenated spelling

Surface Forms

mumblety-peg singular
mumblety-pegs plural

Morphology

mumblety-peg = mumble + peg (opaque) = mumble + peg

Although formed from recognizable words, the lexicalized name of the game does not allow learners to predict the specific knife‑throwing rules from 'mumble' + 'peg'.

Etymology

Mumblety-peg comes from two plain English words: mumble ('to speak quietly') and peg ('a small stick'). One popular story says the name came from the way players try to make a knife point stick like a little 'peg' in the ground, so today mumblety-peg means the knife game where people flip a pocketknife to make it stick in the earth.