Fan-tan

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fan-tan \Fan"-tan`\ (f[a^]n"t[a^]n`), n. [Chinese (of Canton) in
     an-tan-kun gambling house.]
     1. A Chinese gambling game in which coins or other small
        objects are placed upon a table, usually under a cup, and
        the players bet as to what remainder will be left when the
        sum of the counters is divided by four.


        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     2. A game with playing cards in which the cards are played in
        sequences upon the table, the one who first gets rid of
        his cards being the winner.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  fantan
       n 1: a Chinese gambling game; a random number of counters are
            placed under a bowl and you gamble on how many will be
            left (0 or 1 or 2 or 3) modulo 4
       2: a card game in which you play your sevens and other cards in
          sequence in the same suit as their sevens; you win if you
          are the first to use all your cards [syn: {sevens}, {parliament}]