juego de cañas

noun

A Spanish and Latin American game in which participants on horseback attempt to hit one another with canes.

Meanings

nounjuego de cañas (uncountable)

alternative obsolete juego de cannas

  1. historicaluncountableA Spanish and Latin American game in which participants on horseback attempt to hit one another with canes.

    the juego de cañas was above all an aesthetic performance featuring elaborate meaneuvers on horseback and involving little actual violence

    2012, Teofilo F. Ruiz, A King Travels: Festive Traditions in Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain, Princeton University Press, page 213
    1 more example

    After our breakfaſt, the Indian ſhewed us a little ſport in the Market place, running races on horſe-back, and playing at Iuego de Canna’s^([sic]), which is to meet on horſeback, with broad Targets to defend their heads and ſhoulders while paſſing by they hurley Canes,or darts one at another, which thoſe Indians acted with great dexterity.

    1648, Thomas Gage, The English-American his Travail by Sea and Land: Or, a New Survey of the West-India’s, London: R. Cotes, page 96

Origin

  1. Spanishjuego de cañas
  2. Englishjuego de cañas

Borrowed from Spanish juego de cañas (literally “game of canes”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Spanish juego de cañas
  • juego de cañasTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

juego de cañas. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/juego%20de%20ca%C3%B1as

MLA

“juego de cañas.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/juego%20de%20ca%C3%B1as. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “juego de cañas,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/juego%20de%20ca%C3%B1as.

Source: juego de cañas on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.