Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A game for two persons, played on a special board of 256 squares with 19 men apiece, the object of each player being to drive out his opponent's men from their position and to replace them with his own.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Greek Antiq.) The long jump, with weights in the hands, -- the most important of the exercises of the Pentathlon.
  • noun A game played on a board having 256 squares, by two persons with 19 men each, or by four with 13 men each, starting from different corners and striving to place each his own set of men in a corresponding position in the opposite corner by moving them or by jumping them over those met in progress.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun board games A board game invented by George Howard Monks in which the players' men jump over those in adjacent squares.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a board game in which players try to move their pieces into their opponent's bases

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἅλμα (halma, "leap").

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Examples

  • Inside were the emerald and opal "halma" board and ruby and diamond pieces, and with them a slip of parchment with Daphne's handwriting.

    In Brief Authority F. Anstey 1895

  • And because they're ignorant novices, brought up on old maid and halma, they think it's foul play!

    Watershed 2010

  • When you have gone, I will ask Mrs. Gordon to teach me the spirit of acquiescence, and one of those distracting games -- bésique or halma, or some of the other infernal pastimes that heaven decrees for recalcitrant spirits in need of crushing discipline.

    The Daughters of Danaus Mona Caird

  • Lowrie distributed Christmas parcels in December 1919, including indoor games (dominoes, checkers, chess, and halma), mouth organs, and a small amount of money (one hundred to 250 Marks), so that welfare committees could purchase a Christmas tree, decorations, and small supplies.

    Pursuit of an 'Unparalleled Opportunity': The American YMCA and Prisoner of War Diplomacy among the Central Power Nations during World War I 2008

  • Then on another evening we might encourage the men to play progressive games like draughts, halma, picture lotto, spillikins, ping-pong, and beggar-my-neighbour.

    Stand By! Naval Sketches and Stories 1925

  • Think of the thousands and millions that are being demoralized by games of chance, by marbles -- when they play for keeps -- by billiards and croquet, by fox and geese, authors, halma, tiddledywinks and pigs in clover.

    The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. Interviews Robert Green Ingersoll 1866

  • "None of my children have been brought up to play card games," said Mrs. Eggelby; "draughts and halma and those sorts of games I encourage."

    Beasts and Super-Beasts 1870-1916 Saki 1893

  • "I've come to be your legger, grandma," she announced, "and I'll read to you, or amuse you, or play dominos or halma with you, or anything you like."

    Cricket at the Seashore Elizabeth Weston Timlow 1896

  • "And because they're ignorant novices, brought up on old maid and halma, they think it's foul play!"

    Flashman And The Tiger Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1999

  • In the brilliant preface to "Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant," Bernard Shaw, referring to middle-class home life, speaks of "the normal English way being to sit in separate families in separate rooms in separate houses, each person silently occupied with a book, a paper, or a game of halma, cut off equally from the blessings of society and solitude."

    Socialism: Positive and Negative Robert Rives La Monte

Comments

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  • A.k.a. the board game "Chinese Checkers"?

    November 30, 2010