backgammon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a board game for two players who move fifteen checkers according to dice rolls and try to bear them all off first

   They played backgammon by the fire while the rain continued outside.

2. 2
   noun

   a win in which the loser has borne off no checkers and still has one on the bar or in the winner's home board

   Her final roll secured a backgammon and tripled the value of the game.

Recorded in the seventeenth century and probably formed from back + Middle English gamen ('game'), later represented by gammon. The name may refer to pieces being sent back or moved back toward a player's home board, but the precise motivation is uncertain.

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