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pachinko

pachinko

4 9.9
A Japanese arcade game like vertical pinball where players win small metal balls
  • noun
  • /pəˈtʃɪŋkoʊ/
: pachinko
  • And another time, again in Osaka, while we were touring the Great Market, the "Belly of Osaka," Kio Ono took me into a Pachinko parlour.
  • pachinko parlor
  • pachinko machine
  • pachinko ball

Examples

  • My brother Tommy supplied us with a vintage pachinko machine, which he played every time he visited.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • Then he headed back toward Dream Hall, the pachinko parlor he operated.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • How many, uh, pachinko parlors are there in Tokyo?

  • Pachinko parlors paid for this place.

  • From the Pachinko parlors came the metal waterfalls of victory.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • With his pachinko parlors and my fish business... we can round the cash into US dollars... and ship product everywhere almost unnoticed.

  • I can hear the ringing! ringing! of what sounds like a noisy pachinko parlor.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • He wrote me he managed a pachinko parlor in the Asaksa district.

  • On the way back, we drove by a pachinko parlor and a concrete-bunkered stretch of shoreline.

    Blog text (31)
  • In Japan, many people enjoy playing pachinko in arcades during their free time.

Synonyms

pinball
vspachinko
33 2.1

A game on a tilted board where you shoot a metal ball to hit targets and score points

is played on a vertical board to win small steel balls rather than score

Surface Forms

pachinko singular
pachinkos plural

Etymology

Pachinko comes from a Japanese sound word: the start pachi means a small 'snap' or 'pat' like the steel balls hitting the board. So a helpful way to remember pachinko is that it is the noisy Japanese arcade game where players try to win small steel balls.