game over

1. video gamesA message signaling that the game has ended, usually because the player failed (for example by losing all of their lives) but sometimes following successful completion of the game.

   Before I could figure out what the hell was the object of the game, I hear the thing go boom-boom, and the screen lights up with a sign: game over.

   1984, Robert Maxxe, Arcade

2. broadlyThe end of some ongoing situation, especially in failure.

   If your wife finds out about us, it's game over!

   3 more examples

   That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?

   1986, Aliens

   Once we started attacking that network from the inside, it was pretty much game over.

   2004, Ryan Russell, Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent, page xxi

   "Game over," Waddicor warns. "Look at the fuel gauge. Someone's forgotten to fill up." The heavily laden train has come from Freightliner's Maritime Terminal in Southampton's western docks. Waddicor reckons there might not be enough diesel in the tank to complete the journey.

   2025 August 20, Paul Clifton, “A driver's eye view of East West Rail”, in RAIL, number 1042, page 30

3. broadlyDeath.

   When you have cancer, you pretty much have two options: chemotherapy, or game over.

plural game overs

1. video gamesAn appearance of a game over message.

   When you die too many times in this game, you get a game over.

present singular third person game overs · present singular third person games over · participle present game overing · participle present gaming over · participle past game overed · past game overed · participle past gamed over · past gamed over · alternative game-over

1. intransitiverarevideo gamesTo receive a 'game over' message.
2. raretransitivevideo gamesTo deliver to someone a 'game over' message.