crap game
- noun
- /kræp ɡeɪm/
- Informal
- We got complaints of a crap game in back of Sam and Selma's.
Examples
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Why, I had a chance to clean up in a crap game.
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We see a crap game being played on a fancy crap table by gamblers in tuxedos and lucky ladies in fancy evening gowns.
Fiction book (1994) -
I went up to get it, there was this crap game going on.
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I won it absolutely fair in a crap game.
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I got a little rich one night, and dropped $500 in a crap game.
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He won it in a crap game.
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Pointy-Toes started a crap game.
Fiction book (1996) -
I'd think you'd be ashamed, taking my hard-earned money to lose in a crap game.
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I won a big prize in a crap game at the party last weekend.
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They hosted a lively crap game in the back alley of the bar.
Synonyms
A gambling game played with two dice in which players bet on the numbers they roll
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'a session of playing the dice game craps' cannot be transparently derived from 'crap' (meaning nonsense/vulgar thing) + 'game'; the intended meaning relies on the proper-name gambling term 'craps' and a cultural/gaming knowledge that is not signaled by the literal constituents. A B1 learner who knows the basic words would likely interpret it as 'a lousy/worthless game' or be unsure, so the expression is not predictable from its parts.
Etymology
Crap game comes from the dice game craps, where craps was the name for a 'losing roll' of the dice. People often played craps in back rooms or on the street, so crap game came to mean a session of playing that 'dice game'.