Children’s Games

EE1 What games do children play around here, in which they form a ring, and either sing or recite a rhyme?

EE2 Games that have one extra player—when a signal is given, the players change places, and the extra one tries to get a place:

EE3 Games in which you hide an object and then look for it:

EE4 Games in which one player’s eyes are bandaged and he has to catch the others and guess who they are:

EE5 Games where you try to make a jackknife stick in the ground:

EE6a Names for different kinds of marbles—the big one that’s used to knock others out of the ring:

EE6b Small marbles or marbles in general:

EE6c Cheap marbles:

EE6d Special marbles:

EE7 What kinds of marble games are played or used to be played around here? (Open question)

EE8 The line toward which the players roll their marbles before beginning a game, to determine the order of shooting:

EE9a The children’s trick of turning over rapidly straight forward close to the ground: (Gesture.)

EE9b If children jump forward, land on the hands, and turn over: (Gesture.)

EE9c What if children spread their arms and turn over sideways? (Gesture.)

EE10 A game in which a short stick lying on the ground is flipped into the air and then hit with a longer stick, that’s ________.

EE11 Bat-and-ball games for just a few players (when there aren’t enough for a regular game):

EE12 Games in which one captain hides his team and the other team tries to find it:

EE13a Games in which every player hides except one, and that one must try to find the others:

EE13b In games in which all the others hide, the one who must try to find them, he’s ________.

EE14 What do you call the place where the player who is ‘it’ has to wait and count while the others hide?

EE15 When he has caught the first of those that were hiding what does the player who is ‘it’ call out to the others?

EE16 Hiding games that start with a special, elaborate method of sending the players out to hide:

EE17 In a game of tag, if a player wants to rest, what does he call out so that he can’t be tagged?

EE18 Games in which the players set up a stone, a tin can, or something similar, and then try to knock it down:

EE19 The game in which children mark a ‘court’ on the ground or sidewalk, throw a flat stone in one section, then go on one foot and try to kick it or carry it out:

EE20 When two boys are fighting, and the one who is losing wants to stop, he calls out, “________.”

EE21a When somebody goes into a fight very actively: “You should have seen Jack ________ Bob.” [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

EE21b When boys were fighting very actively, you might say, “For a while those fellows really ________.”

EE22 What do you call the game in which they throw a ball over a building (a house or a barn) to a player on the other side?

EE23a In the game of andy-over (or other word) what do you call out when you throw the ball?

EE23b In the game of andy-over (or other word) if you fail to get the ball over the building and it rolls back, what do you call out?

EE24a When there’s snow, children go down the hill on a ________.

EE24b When children go down hill on a sled (or other word) they say they’re ________.

EE25 When a child picks up his sled (or hand-sleigh/scoot), runs with it, and then throws himself down on it, that’s a ________.

EE26 What games do children play in the snow around here? (Open question)

EE27 Games played on the ice: (Open question)

EE28 Games played in the water: (Open question)

EE29 When swimmers are diving and one comes down flat onto the water, that’s a ________.

EE30 Throwing a flat stone over the surface of water so that it jumps several times:

EE31 Playground equipment with a long board for two children to sit on and go up and down in turn:

EE32 A homemade merry-go-round:

EE33 Other outdoor games not yet mentioned that children play now, or that were played in your childhood: (Open question)

EE34 Other words used around here meaning a child’s toy:

EE35 Long wooden poles with a footpiece that children walk around on to make them tall:

EE36 To climb the trunk of a tree by holding on with your legs while you pull yourself up with your hands:

EE37 The game where you try to throw metal rings or something similar over a stake in the ground:

EE38a A game played with pencil and paper where the players try to get three X’s or three O’s in a row:

EE38b If the game of tick-tack-toe (or other word) comes out so that neither X nor O wins, you call that ________.

EE39 Other games played on paper by two people: (Open question)

EE40 What table games are played around here, using dice? (Open question)

EE41 A hobgoblin that is used to threaten children and make them behave:

DARE Data Summary by Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.