Game vs Match - What's the difference?

Match is a synonym of game.

In intransitive terms the difference between game and match

is that game is to play games and be a gamer while match is to agree, to be equal, to correspond to.

In transitive terms the difference between game and match

is that game is to exploit loopholes in a system or bureaucracy in a way which defeats or nullifies the spirit of the rules in effect, usually to obtain a result which otherwise would be unobtainable while match is to equal or exceed in achievement.

As an adjective game

is willing to participate.

game

English

Noun

A playful or competitive activity.

#A playful activity that may be unstructured; an amusement or pastime.

#(label) An activity described by a set of rules, especially for the purpose of entertainment, often competitive or having an explicit goal.

#*1983 , Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes, and Walon Green, (WarGames) , MGM/UA Entertainment Co.:

#*:Joshua: Shall we play a game ?

#(label) A particular instance of playing a game; match .

#*:“I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

#That which is gained, such as the stake in a game.

#The number of points necessary to win a game.

#(label) In some games, a point awarded to the player whose cards add up to the largest sum.

#(label) The equipment that enables such activity, particularly as packaged under a title.

#One's manner, style, or performance in playing a game.

A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.

Something that resembles a game with rules, despite not being designed.

*:I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. The game ’s afoot!

*:“I'm through with all pawn-games ,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Timothy Garton Ash)

, volume=189, issue=6, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli , passage=Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too.}}

An exercise simulating warfare, whether computerized or involving human participants.

(label) Wild animals hunted for food.

The ability to seduce someone, usually by strategy.

(label) A questionable or unethical practice in pursuit of a goal; a scheme.

*(Blackwood Magazine)

*:Your murderous game is nearly up.

*(George Saintsbury) (1845-1933)

*:It was obviously Lord Macaulay's game to blacken the greatest literary champion of the cause he had set himself to attack.

Synonyms

* See also * (synonyms to be checked) pastime, play, recreation, frolic, sport, diversion, fun, amusement, merriment, festivity, entertainment, spree, prank, lark, gambol, merrymaking, gaiety * (instance of gameplay) match * (field of gainful activity) line * (military) wargame * (business or occupation) racket * (questionable practices) racket

Antonyms

* (antonyms to be checked) drudgery, work, toil

Derived terms

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Adjective

(er)

(colloquial) Willing to participate.

* (rfdate) (computer game):

I'm game , would you like to tell me how [to do that]?

(of an animal) That shows a tendency to continue to fight against another animal, despite being wounded, often severely.

Persistent, especially in senses similar to the above.

Injured, lame (of a limb).

* around 1900 , O. Henry,

You come with me and we'll have a cozy dinner and a pleasant talk together, and by that time your game ankle will carry you home very nicely, I am sure."

Synonyms

* (willing to participate) sporting, willing, daring, disposed, favorable, nervy, courageous, valiant

Antonyms

* (willing to participate) cautious, disinclined

Verb

(gam)

To gamble.

To play games and be a gamer.

To exploit loopholes in a system or bureaucracy in a way which defeats or nullifies the spirit of the rules in effect, usually to obtain a result which otherwise would be unobtainable.

We'll bury them in paperwork, and game the system.

(transitive, slang, of males) To perform premeditated seduction strategy.

* 2005 , " Picking up the pieces", The Economist , 6 October 2005:

Returning briefly to his journalistic persona to interview Britney Spears, he finds himself gaming her, and she gives him her phone number.

* 2010 , Mystery, The Pickup Artist: The New and Improved Art of Seduction , Villard Books (2010), ISBN 9780345518217, page 100:

A business associate of mine at the time, George Wu, sat across the way, gaming a stripper the way I taught him.

* 2010 , Sheila McClear, " Would you date a pickup artist?", New York Post , 9 July 2010:

How did Amanda know she wasn’t getting gamed ? Well, she didn’t. “I would wonder, ‘Is he saying stuff to other girls that he says to me?’ We did everything we could to cut it off . . . yet we somehow couldn’t.”

Derived terms

* game the system

Anagrams

* * 1000 English basic words ----

match

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) macche, from (etyl)

Noun

(es)

(sports) A competitive sporting event such as a boxing meet, a baseball game, or a cricket match.

My local team are playing in a match against their arch-rivals today.

Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.

* Drayton

many a warlike match

* Dryden

A solemn match was made; he lost the prize.

Someone with a measure of an attribute equaling or exceeding the object of comparison.

He knew he had met his match .

* Addison

Government makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects.

A marriage.

A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage.

* Clarendon

She was looked upon as the richest match of the West.

Suitability.

Equivalence; a state of correspondence. (rfex)

Equality of conditions in contest or competition.

* Shakespeare

It were no match , your nail against his horn.

A pair of items or entities with mutually suitable characteristics.

The carpet and curtains are a match .

An agreement or compact.

* Shakespeare

Thy hand upon that match .

* Boyle

Love doth seldom suffer itself to be confined by other matches than those of its own making.

(metalworking) A perforated board, block of plaster, hardened sand, etc., in which a pattern is partly embedded when a mould is made, for giving shape to the surfaces of separation between the parts of the mould.

Derived terms

* cage match * first class match * friendly match * grudge match * * love match * Man of the Match/man of the match * match fixing * match made in heaven * match made in hell * matchless * matchmaker * match play/matchplay * matchplayer * match point * match referee * * one-day match * overmatch * post-match * rubber match * shouting match * slanging match * steel cage match * Test match * tour match * whole shitting match * whole shooting match

Verb

(es)

(lb) To agree, to be equal, to correspond to.

*:There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

*{{quote-book, year=1927, author= F. E. Penny

, chapter=4, title= Pulling the Strings , passage=Soon after the arrival of Mrs. Campbell, dinner was announced by Abboye. He came into the drawing room resplendent in his gold-and-white turban. […] His cummerbund matched the turban in gold lines.}}

(lb) To make a successful match or pairing.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=71, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= End of the peer show , passage=Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.}}

(lb) To equal or exceed in achievement.

(lb) To unite in marriage, to mate.

*1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Much Ado About Nothing) , :

*:Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

*(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

*:A senator of Rome survived, / Would not have matched his daughter with a king.

To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and groove at the edges.

Derived terms

* match drill * matcher * matchup * matchy * * overmatch * unmatch

Etymology 2

From (etyl)

Noun

(es)

Device made of wood or paper, at the tip coated with chemicals that ignite with the friction of being dragged (struck) against a rough dry surface.

He struck a match and lit his cigarette.

Synonyms

* spunk

Derived terms

* fireplace match * matchbook, matchbox, matchlock * matchgirl * phosphorus match * quick match * safety match * slow match * strike-anywhere match * sulfur match * sulphur match