marbles

M3A1R1B3L1E1S1

noun

Any of several children's games played with small balls (made of marble or more commonly glass).

“Granny's still got all her marbles.”

Similar
buttonsluciditylucidnessmindsanenesssanitywits
Less commonScrabble 11
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

marbles1

nounmarbles pl (plural only)
  1. pluralplural onlyAny of several children's games played with small balls (made of marble or more commonly glass).

    Egyptian boys played marbles before the days of Moses.

  2. figurativelypluralplural onlyusually in a limited number of expressionsSanity.

    Granny's still got all her marbles.

    5 more examples

    Grandpa's lost his marbles, but at least he still recognizes us.

    His lack of marbles is becoming ever more apparent.

    “A nice imbroglio you've landed me in. Thanks to you ...” “Yes, sir.” “Don't say ‘Yes, sir.’ Thanks to you I have been widely publicized as off my rocker.” “Not widely, sir. Merely to your immediate circle now resident at Brinkley Court.” “You have held me up at the bar of world opinion as a man who has not got all his marbles.” “It was not easy to think of an alternative scheme, sir.”

    1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XXI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

    There are times when you are certain that the person speaking to you has completely misplaced his marbles. As I leaned away in reaction I felt confident […] Ed had lost his.

    2005, Sue Henry, The Serpents Trail, page 86

    —Her daddy's crazy. […] Think she's looking for something? —Treasure, I expect. That or maybe her daddy's marbles.

    2012, J. T. Petty, Bloody Chester, First Second, →ISBN, page 63

    Synonyms: buttons, buttons, lucidity, lucidness, mind, saneness, sanity

  3. pluralplural onlyhobbiesBits of rolled-up rubber shed by the tires of race cars that accumulate at the edges of the track, especially at the corners.

    Some corners are littered with marbles, off the racing line.

    2014, Amen Zwa, Going Nowhere Fast In Assetto Corsa (2015-05-01), →ISBN, page 395
noun
  1. pluralplural of marble

    Marbles were among the treasures found buried in the ruins of Pompeii.

verb
  1. indicativepresentsingularthird personthird-person singular simple present indicative of marble

Marbles2

proper noun
  1. pluralplural of Marble

Synonyms & antonyms

nounSanity.

Similar
buttonsbuttonsluciditylucidnessmindsanenesssanity

More synonyms by meaning

nounthe basic human power of intelligent thought and perception

Similar
wits
Broader
intelligence
Also see
buttonsmindsanitywits

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Translations

Arabic كُرَيَّات
  • كُرَيَّات (kurayyāt)game
Chinese Mandarin 弹珠
  • 弹珠 (dànzhū)game
Czech kuličky
  • kuličkygame
Dutch knikkers
  • knikkersgame
French billes
  • billesgame
Italian marmi
  • marmigame
Māori hītimi
  • hītimigame
Norwegian Bokmål klinkekuler
  • klinkekulergame
Punjabi ਬੰਟੇ
  • ਬੰਟੇ (baṇṭe)game
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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