canasta

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A card game similar to rummy and played using two packs, where the object is to meld…

   A card game similar to rummy and played using two packs, where the object is to meld groups of the same rank.

   • “Do you know something, Fred?” she announced, “I won four dollars and eighty-five cents playing Canasta this afternoon.” “Canasta!” exclaimed Mr. Grimes, “I didn′t know you could play that silly game.”
   • Imagine, first, two players who engage in a game of canasta according to a standard set of rules.[…]We may imagine, however, that at a certain moment the two canasta players cease to play canasta and start a discussion of the rules.
   • Modern American Canasta is a younger cousin of the game of Canasta I explain here.
2. 2

   A meld of seven cards in a game of canasta.

   • Groups of seven of a kind are called canastas, and before a player can go out he or his partner must have at least one canasta.

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