ombre, n.1
(ˈɒmbə(r), ˈɒmbreɪ)
Also 7 l'ombre, l'hombre, umbre, 7–9 hombre, 8–9 omber.
[a. Sp. hombre (:—L. hominem) man (see quot. 1662), perh. through F. hombre, ombre (17th c. in Hatz.–Darm.).]
1. A card-game played by three persons, with forty cards, the eights, nines, and tens of the ordinary pack being thrown out.
Ombre was very popular in the 17th–18th centuries, but about 1726 it was superseded as the fashionable card-game by Quadrille.
| 1660–61 E. Gower 26 Jan. in 5th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 202/1 To play at Hombre, the new game at cards now in fashion at court. 1662 Cotgrave Wits Interpr. (ed. 2) 353 L'Ombre is a Spanish Game at Cards, wherein he who undertakes to play it saith Jo soy L'Ombre, i.e. I am the man; for so the word L'Ombre signifieth. 1668 G. Etherege She would if she could iii. iii, Were [I] every afternoon at my Lady Briefes..at Umbre and Quebas. 1678 Wycherley Plain-Dealer ii. i, Captain, I beg your pardon: You will not make one at Hombre? 1691 G. Etherege Poems Wks. (1888) 378 Such ropes of pearl her arms encumber, She scarce can deal the cards at ombre. 1706 Phillips, Omber, or Ombre. 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock iii. 27 At Ombre singly to decide their doom. a 1761 J. Cawthorn Birth Genius Poems (1771) 54 They taught him with address and skill To shine at ombre and quadrille. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xlvii, The night when he and the Marquis of Steyne won a hundred thousand from a great personage at Hombre. 1887 All Year Round 5 Feb. 68 Ombre and Quadrille are terribly complicated for a beginner. |
2. The player at this game who undertakes to win the pool.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., If any will attempt for it [the stake or game], he henceforth is called the ombre. 1878 H. Gibbs Ombre 20 He is then the Ombre (El Hombre) the man of the moment—the champion who stands the game. |
3. Comb., as ombre-box, ombre-player, ombre-table.
| 1711 Steele Spect. No. 140 ¶10 Ladies..who as soon as the Ombre-Table is called for..are immediately Transmigrated into the veriest Wasps in Nature. 1735 Pope's Lett. I. 319 Things..below the Consideration of a Wit, and an Ombre-player. 1878 H. Gibbs Ombre 9 A regular Ombre-box has four trays within it each with its several coloured counters, and in the middle a pool-dish. |