cockamaroon.
/ˌkɒkəməˈruː/, U.S. /ˌkɑkəməˈru/ Now rare.
A variation of bagatelle, typically played by children, employing holes, pins, arches, and bells; = Russian bagatelle n. at Russian n. and adj. Compounds 2b.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > bagatelle and similar games > [noun]
troll-madam1572
nine holes1573
pigeonholes1608
small trunksc1610
hole1611
trucks1671
roly-poly1707
Mississippi1728
bumble-puppy1794
bubble the justice1801
bagatelle1819
cockamaroo1850
pigs in clover1889
pinball1911
pinball game1911
Skee-Ball1923
Corinthian bagatelle1933
pachinko1949
1850 H. G. Bohn et al. Hand-bk. Games 613 (heading) Russian Bagatelle, or Cockamaroo Table.
1854 G. J. Whyte-Melville Tilbury Nogo I. viii. 128 All flirtations, I suppose, are the same—like ‘cockamaroo’, or any other game adapted only for two people, however engrossing they may be to the players, they are somewhat dull to the lookers-on.
1871 Chambers's Jrnl. 25 Mar. 185/1 She heard a bell ring, or rather tingle, just as those very little bells are wont to do when struck by a marble in the child's game of cockamaroo.
1893 Sat. Rev. 76 561 Like a glass marble in the good old game of Cockamaroo.
1989 Times 30 May 20/4 There are tables for cards, chess, backgammon and cockamaroo—an early form of bagatelle, in which the board slopes upwards.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1850