gamesmanship

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noun

The use of legal but unsporting tactics to gain an advantage over one’s opponent.

“They kept the other team waiting on the field until the last possible moment – that was a clear case of gamesmanship.”

UncommonScrabble 22
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Meanings

noungamesmanship (countable and uncountable, plural gamesmanships)

plural gamesmanships

  1. countableuncountableThe use of legal but unsporting tactics to gain an advantage over one’s opponent.

    They kept the other team waiting on the field until the last possible moment – that was a clear case of gamesmanship.

    1 more example

    [Tina] Satter’s film, with its dramatization of the investigators’ formalized gamesmanship and [Reality] Winner’s strategic maneuvering, is fascinating but narrow, both regarding the protagonist and the law at large.

    2024 September 11, Richard Brody, ““Winner” Takes Political Comedy Seriously”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 12 Sep 2024

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
shithousery

Origin

From game + -s- + -manship or gamesman + -ship.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

gamesmanship. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gamesmanship

MLA

“gamesmanship.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gamesmanship. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gamesmanship,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gamesmanship.

Source: gamesmanship on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.