marbles

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mar·ble

(mär′bəl)

a. A metamorphic rock formed by alteration of limestone or dolomite, often irregularly colored by impurities, and used especially in architecture and sculpture.

b. A piece of this rock.

c. A sculpture made from this rock.

2. Something resembling or suggesting metamorphic rock, as in being very hard, smooth, or cold: a heart of marble; a brow of marble.

3. Games

a. A small hard ball, usually of glass, used in children's games.

b. marbles(used with a sing. verb) Any of various games played with marbles.

4. marbles Slang Common sense; sanity: completely lost his marbles after the stock market crash.

5. Marbling.

tr.v. mar·bled, mar·bling, mar·bles

To mottle and streak (paper, for example) with colors and veins in imitation of marble.

adj.

1. Composed of metamorphic rock: a marble hearth.

2. Resembling metamorphic rock in consistency, texture, venation, color, or coldness.

[Middle English marbre, marble, from Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Greek marmaros, of unknown origin.]

mar′bly adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

marbles

(ˈmɑːbəlz)

1. (Games, other than specified) (functioning as singular) a game in which marbles are rolled at one another, similar to bowls

2. (functioning as plural) informal wits: to lose one's marbles.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Noun	1.	marbles - a children's game played with little balls made of a hard substance (as glass) child's game - a game enjoyed by children
	2.	marbles - the basic human power of intelligent thought and perception; "he used his wits to get ahead"; "I was scared out of my wits"; "he still had all his marbles and was in full possession of a lively mind" wits intelligence - the ability to comprehend; to understand and profit from experience

Translations

ألعاب بالكُكَل المَرْمَرِيَّه

hra v kuličky

kuglespil

Murmelspiel

golyózás

kúluspil

kulespill

misket/bilye oyunu

打弹子游戏

marble

(ˈmaːbl) noun

1. a kind of hard, usually highly polished stone, cold to the touch. This table is made of marble; (also adjective) a marble statue.

2. a small hard ball of glass used in children's games. The little boy rolled a marble along the ground.

ˈmarbled adjective

having irregular streaks of different colours, like some types of marble. marbled stonework.

ˈmarbles noun singular

any of several games played with marbles. The boys were playing marbles.

References in classic literature ?

What bitter blanks in those black-bordered marbles which cover no ashes!

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It was nevertheless greatly admired by ignorant travellers of all classes; partly on account of its imposing size, and partly on account of the number of variously-coloured marbles which the sculptor had contrived to introduce into his design.

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Before long they reached a high wall of solid white marble, and the path came to an end at this wall.

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In it lay a marble. Tom's astonishment was bound- less!

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At length the three brothers came to a castle: and as they passed by the stables they saw fine horses standing there, but all were of marble, and no man was to be seen.

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We have visited several of the palaces--immense thick-walled piles, with great stone staircases, tesselated marble pavements on the floors,

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They stood motionless and stiff as marble statues, in exactly the positions they were in when the Liquid struck them.

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They had stopped with Hafler, the poets in the Marble House, which he had built with his own hands.

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And now the avenue widened into an immense square, at the far end of which rose a stately edifice gleaming white in virgin marble among the gaily painted buildings surrounding it and its scarlet sward and gaily-flowering, green-foliaged shrubbery.

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Above our heads is a double ogive vault, panelled with wood carving, painted azure, and sown with golden fleurs-de-lis; beneath our feet a pavement of black and white marble, alternating.

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At the same instant the room filled with bowmen, and then the jeddak of Lothar sank senseless to the marble floor.

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At a distance, towards the center of the island, he beheld the stately towers of what seemed to be a palace, built of snow-white marble, and rising in the midst of a grove of lofty trees.