ninepins

7.5

A game where you roll a ball to knock down nine wooden pins

noun

: boliche

In nineteenth-century England, ninepins was a popular pastime among villagers.

Examples

The rules of ninepins differ slightly from modern bowling games.
The group decided to play a game of ninepins at the old community center.
They played ninepins at the local fair.
Have you ever tried ninepins?
On weekends, we often play ninepins at the local bowling alley, enjoying the friendly competition.
The children laughed as they took turns trying to knock down all the ninepins with a single roll of the ball.
During family gatherings, we love to challenge each other to a game of ninepins in the backyard.

Synonyms

bowling

vsninepins

210 1.0

A game in which people roll a ball to knock down pins

is the narrower traditional form that uses nine standing wooden pins

skittles

vsninepins

7.4

A game where players roll a ball to knock down nine wooden pins

is the traditional nine-pin game without the chiefly British alley focus

Surface Forms

ninepins plural

Morphology

ninepins = ninepin (transparent) = nine + pin + s

The word is the plural of the compound 'ninepin' (nine + pin); pluralization by -s is regular and the compound meaning is literal.

Etymology

Ninepins simply joins nine and pins, literally 'nine' and 'pins', to name the old game where you roll a ball at a set of nine wooden pins, and that is why it means a traditional form of bowling with nine pins instead of the ten used today.