Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A gardener's measuring-cord or -line.
- noun The toy called cup-and-ball.
- noun An 8-inch mortar for throwing shells.
- noun An implement for curling hair.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The toy called
cup and ball .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A traditional children's toy consisting of a wooden
cup with ahandle , and aball attached to the cup by astring .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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He shook his head, and reached out a hand for the bilboquet.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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The boy, understanding none of the English in which these exchanges were conducted, ignored them, intent on trying to work the bilboquet with one eye closed.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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Jamie was holding a bilboquet in one hand, and had the other poised over one eye.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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The child Fergus, after a brief, incurious glance at us, had resumed his trials with the bilboquet.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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I saw the boy Fergus's eyes focus at a spot somewhat past the bilboquet, where a tray of iced cakes stood on a table near the wall.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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Placing the hand over his eye, he fixed the other piercingly on the bilboquet and gave the ivory cup a toss.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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Jamie reached over and took the bilboquet from the boy.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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Fergus, apparently hardened to the sight of female limbs, ignored me altogether, concentrating grimly on the bilboquet.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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"Oh, yes; just as I admire great bilboquet players," said he, in that tone of his, which rendered everything he said diverting.
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Now he was yelling like an Indian, this celebrated composer of ballets, as he swung a little peasant maid of ten in a creaky swing beyond the pool -- a dear little maid with eyes as dark as Alice's, who screamed from sheer delight, and insisted on that good fellow playing all the games that lay about them, from _tonneau_ to _bilboquet_.
yarb commented on the word bilboquet
...caressing her glossy young shoulder so as to fit for an instant, the happiest in her life, its ideal convexity bilboquet-wise within the hollow of his palm.
- Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor
June 5, 2008
bilby commented on the word bilboquet
What an elegant word ;-)
June 5, 2008
dontcry commented on the word bilboquet
But what does it meeeeeeeean? *stomps foot*
June 6, 2008
yarb commented on the word bilboquet
It seems to be one of these.
June 6, 2008
dontcry commented on the word bilboquet
Oh. Why, then, are so many restaurants named Bilboquet?
June 6, 2008
yarb commented on the word bilboquet
What am I, the fucking Oracle?
June 6, 2008
dontcry commented on the word bilboquet
Yes. You are. Now answer the question, please.
June 6, 2008
dontcry commented on the word bilboquet
By the way, what's the Oracle?
June 6, 2008
yarb commented on the word bilboquet
Well, to be honest, I'm stumped. I've posted on Yahoo Answers.
The Oracle was a crazed Greek prophetess, residing at Delphi, who dispensed gnomic prognostications to deserving supplicants. Basically an old-time fortune cookie.
June 6, 2008
dontcry commented on the word bilboquet
I heart yarb.
June 6, 2008
yarb commented on the word bilboquet
Aw. It feels good to be hearted.
June 6, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word bilboquet
"Jamie was holding a bilboquet in one hand, and had the other poised over one eye.
'Of course I can,' he was saying. 'Any day and twice on Sundays. Watch.'
Placing the hand over his eye, he fixed the other piercingly on the bilboquet and gave the ivory cup a toss. The tethered ball leaped from its socket into an arc, and dropped as though guided by radar, landing back in its cup with a smug little plop."
—Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber (NY: Delacorte Press, 1991), 232
January 2, 2010