rummy

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   in informal British use, odd, peculiar, or suspicious

   It was a rummy business, and no one could explain the missing key.

2. 2
   noun

   any of a family of card games based on collecting matching sets and sequences

   They played rummy beside the fire until midnight.

3. 3
   noun

   a dated and disparaging term for a person who drinks alcohol habitually

   The novel portrays him as the neighborhood rummy, always asking for a drink.

The British adjective is formed from rum ("odd or queer") + -y. The card-game name, recorded around 1900, is of uncertain origin, perhaps connected with rum or with German Ruhm ("glory"). The dated word for a drinker is formed directly from rum + -y.

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