Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A game something like backgammon, common among the ancient Mexicans.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An American Indian game analogous to dice, probably originally a method of divination.

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

  • noun A board game similar to pachisi played by the Aztecs.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Classical Nahuatl patolli ("kidney bean; board game").

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Examples

  • The game of the Hindoos, called pachisi, is played upon a cross-shaped board or cloth; it is a combination of checkers and draughts, with the throwing of dice, the dice determining the number of moves; when the Spaniards entered Mexico they found the Aztecs playing a game called patolli, identical with the Hindoo pachisi, on a similar cross-shaped board.

    Atlantis : the antediluvian world Ignatius Donnelly 1866

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