marbles
Any of several children's games played with small ballsAny of several children's games played with small balls (made of marble or more commonly glass).
Meaning
3 senses(plural, plural only)Any of several children's games played with small balls (made of marble or more commonly glass).
Egyptian boys played marbles before the days of Moses.
a children's game played with little balls made of a hard substance (as glass)
(figuratively, plural, plural only)Sanity.
Grandpa's lost his marbles, but at least he still recognizes us.
Granny's still got all her marbles.
(plural, plural only)Bits of rolled-up rubber shed by the tires of race cars that accumulate at the edges of the track, especially at the corners.
Translations
2 languagesDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.