ambigu

plural ambigus

1. countabledatedAn entertainment at which a medley of dishes is set on at the same time; a buffet.

   Properly served, as is done daily in many a Creole home, an “Ambigu” may become an elegant and distinguished repast, though the viands are plain and simple.

   2012, The Picayune's Creole Cook Book, page 417

   3 more examples

   When straiten'd in your time, and servants few, You'd richly then compose an ambigu; Where first and second course, and your desert, All in one single table have their part.

   1708, William King, Art of Cookery

   "Carry this to Sister Clarisse,” she said, "and bid her prepare an ambigu for neighbour Prudent in the almonry.” The schoolmaster's face shone. An ambigu, in other words, meat, vegetables, dessert, served at once generally in one large dish, made up for scanty fare days before and after.

   1898, Matilda Betham-Edwards, A Storm-rent Sky: Scenes of Love and Revolution, page 46

   The meaning of the French word which was appropriated to use in England in this way can be 'a mixture of different things', and this meaning was reflected in the wide variety of dishes laid out on the 'sideboard' for an ambigu.

   2014, Alan Davidson, Tom Jaine, The Oxford Companion to Food, page 15

2. uncountableA French card game, somewhat like poker, but of earlier origin and involving different scoring of hands, played with a 40 card deck (four suits of Ace through 10).

   Others include the French games of ambigu, bouillotte, and brelan, the English games of brag and post-and-pair, and the Italian game of primiera.

   2010, Stewart N. Ethier, The Doctrine of Chances: Probabilistic Aspects of Gambling, page 731

   2 more examples

   In France during the following century primero became ambigu, and a little later another variation, called brag, sprang up in the west of England, from which poker is more directly descended in its American form.

   1916, New International Encyclopedia - Volume 18, page 773

   There can be no ties in ambigu because when identical hands occur (as ♠9,♣7,♦5,♥A vs. ♣9,♦7,♥5,♠A) the player nearest to the dealer's right becomes the winner.

   2013, Walter B. Gibson, Hoyle's Modern Encyclopedia of Card Games, page 15