Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A play in bridge that forces an opponent to lead and results in the opponents' losing one or more tricks that they would have won had they not been leading.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun bridge A tactical play in which a defender is put on lead at a strategic moment, and then has to make a play that loses one or more tricks
  • verb bridge To make an endplay

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

end +‎ play

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Examples

  • She could discard one spade, but if she discarded another declarer would make his last two spades; if North threw the winning heart, ace and a spade would endplay her to lead away from the ace of clubs; finally, a club discard would allow declarer to duck a club to the now-bare ace.

    Young, void and bidding 2011

  • Back in the old days of 2002 I used to think that the point was to create an endplay in which the exclusionary rule, right to counsel, and such “had to be sacrificed” on the altar of our safety.

    I Said I Said What I Said | ATTACKERMAN 2009

  • He claimed that in good old fashion Twilight Zone esque endplay, Jack is kind of aborsed and taken away from the hotel and his current life when he dies after being driven mad by the hotel, who never wants residents to check out and is then locked into the photograph at the end, trapped in a forever single moment of time at the overlook ball.

    Final Shot: THE SHINING | Obsessed With Film 2009

  • He cannot avoid executing a squeeze or an endplay.

    VICTOR MOLLO’S BRIDGE CLUB VICTOR MOLLO 1979

  • First he argued that in the three-card endplay he was squeezed in hearts and clubs.

    VICTOR MOLLO’S BRIDGE CLUB VICTOR MOLLO 1979

  • “Half a dummy reversal and half an endplay,” observed Oscar the Owl.

    VICTOR MOLLO’S BRIDGE CLUB VICTOR MOLLO 1979

  • First he argued that in the three-card endplay he was squeezed in hearts and clubs.

    VICTOR MOLLO’S BRIDGE CLUB VICTOR MOLLO 1979

  • To beat the contract I had to foresee the endplay and give up a trick in trumps so as to gain two in hearts.

    VICTOR MOLLO’S BRIDGE CLUB VICTOR MOLLO 1979

  • He cannot avoid executing a squeeze or an endplay.

    VICTOR MOLLO’S BRIDGE CLUB VICTOR MOLLO 1979

  • To beat the contract I had to foresee the endplay and give up a trick in trumps so as to gain two in hearts.

    VICTOR MOLLO’S BRIDGE CLUB VICTOR MOLLO 1979

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