mumbletypeg

[ muhm-buhl-tee-peg ]

noun

1. a children's game played with a pocketknife, the object being to cause the blade to stick in the ground or a wooden surface by flipping the knife in a number of prescribed ways or from a number of prescribed positions.

mumbletypeg

/ ˈmʌmbəltɪˌpɛɡ /

noun

1. a game in which players throw a knife in various prescribed ways, the aim being to make the blade stick in the ground

Word History and Origins

Origin of mumbletypeg¹

1620–30; from phrase mumble the peg ( mumble ); so named because the losing player was formerly required to pull a peg from the ground with their teeth

Word History and Origins

Origin of mumbletypeg¹

C17: from mumble the peg , a loser in the game being required to pull the knife out of the ground using the teeth

Example Sentences

Mechanically he began to play mumbletypeg with the butcher knife—palm of hand, back of hand, right fist, left fist, and had progressed as far as his left pinky in the movement known as off fingers of each hand when he sat back and stared at the knife quivering in the turf.

From Project Gutenberg

The frost was working out of the ground, and out of the air, too, and it was getting closer and closer onto barefoot time every day; and next it would be marble time, and next mumbletypeg, and next tops and hoops, and next kites, and then right away it would be summer and going in a-swimming.

From Project Gutenberg

"I think they're more fun than playing solitaire or mumbletypeg," declared Uncle Henry, soberly.

From Project Gutenberg