knucklebones

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a game in which jackstones are thrown and picked up in various groups between bounces of a small rubber ball

Whiles I played at the knucklebones. — Catriona, Robert Louis Stevenson
The mate went cold along his spine, and the vertebrae distributed there jostled together like knucklebones on the back of a girl's hand, and he yelled "Port helm!" — The best short stories of 1919, and the yearbook of the American short story, Unknown
Then one, greatly daring, did try to touch him ... but a skeleton hand shot out of a crimson sleeve and violently seized the rash one's wrist; and he, feeling the clutch of the knucklebones, the furious grasp of Death, uttered a cry of pain and terror. — The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux

jacks, jackstones

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