showdownn.
/ˈʃəʊdaʊn/, U.S. /ˈʃoʊˌdaʊn/ 1.
a. Cards (esp. Poker). The moment at the end of a game or round in which players lay down their cards face up in order to determine the winner.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > [noun] > actions or tactics > specific
discarding1592
facing1635
pull1715
lead1742
return1742
discard1778
solo1814
underplay1850
convention1862
force1862
showdown1870
unblocking1885
false-carding1923
passed hand1924
exit1934
reverse1936
loser-on-loser1947
1870 Owyhee Avalanche (Ruby City, Iowa) 27 Aug. I'm quite sure it wasn't Jim, 'cause he'd ha' stole the pot afore it come to a show-down.
1897 W. C. Morrow Ape, Idiot, & other People (1898) 159 Never disclose your hand except on a showdown.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 1 Feb. 14/1 It is usual to have a ‘show down’ unless at least a three by tricks declaration has been arrived at.
1946 A. H. Morehead & G. Mott-Smith Penguin Hoyle 132 When the hands are shown in the showdown, the player showing the highest-ranking poker hand takes in the pot.
2008 M. Frankel Hats & Eyeglasses (2009) v. 63 If it's just the two of us left at the showdown, he raises and gets as much money as he can.
b. = showdown poker n. at Compounds.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > poker > [noun] > varieties of
vaunt1598
brag1734
draw poker1847
penny ante1855
freeze-out1856
draw1857
straight poker1864
stud poker1864
mistigris1875
highball1878
whisky-poker1878
stud-horse poker1881
stud horse1882
stud1884
showdown poker1892
show poker1895
red dog1919
showdown1927
strip-poker1929
manilla1930
Hold 'Em1964
Texas Hold 'Em1968
pai gow poker1985
1927 F. M. Thrasher Gang ii. v. 89 Other card games, which the gang boy plays for money, are Joker, Bridge,..Nickbones, Show-down, Four Points, and Pitch.
1990 S. Wolpin Rules Neighborhood Poker Hoyle xiv. 112 Showdown is a five-card stud game and is played for one static, predetermined pot.
2010 W. W. Johnstone & J. A. Johnstone Mankiller, Colorado 211 A pair of men in seedy suits sat playing a desultory game of showdown.
2. An open declaration or disclosure of one's plans, means, etc. Now rare.
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society > communication > manifestation > disclosure or revelation > [noun] > a disclosure
reveal1596
disclosure1773
showdown1880
outing1991
1880 Rocky Mountain News (Denver, Colarado) 7 Jan. The agricultural and pastoral products of Larimer county for 1879 will amount to $400,000... We call for a showdown with any county in the state.
1907 R. W. Service Songs of Sourdough (1908) 63 It's great... To know you're acting foolish, yet to go on fooling still, Till Nature calls a show-down, and you Pay the bill.
1936 Princeton Alumni Weekly 16 Oct. 91/3 The administration called for a show-down on how many faculty men had ever breakfasted, lunched or dined in Madison Hall.
3.
a. An event, esp. a confrontation, serving to settle a disagreement or force an issue to a conclusion; a decisive contest, argument, fight, etc.In later use often regarded as an extended use of sense 3b.
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society > society and the community > dissent > contention or strife > [noun] > final
showdown1893
come-to-Jesus1991
the world > action or operation > endeavour > trial or experiment > trial, test, or testing > [noun] > trial or probation of a person > trial of one's strength or position
showdown1893
1893 Switchmen's Jrnl. Aug. 274/1 These actions again stirred up bad blood, and matters were rapidly coming to a show-down.
1904 F. Lynde Grafters ix. 131 ‘You don't mean to say there is any doubt about our ability to do it?’ ‘Oh, no; I suppose not, if it comes to a show-down.’
1936 M. Allingham Flowers for Judge ix. 143 Salley has been stewing up for a row with his critics for some time and is spoiling for a show-down.
1962 A. Lurie Love & Friendship xvi. 310 When it comes to a showdown, women stick to their husbands.
1980 N.Y. Times 12 Oct. (Late City Final ed.) v. 8/1 Texas scored a 20-13 victory over Oklahoma in their annual showdown.
2011 Sun (Nexis) 8 July 11 The final Hogwarts film blockbuster sees Harry battling his nemesis Lord Voldemort in an epic final showdown.
b. spec. In Westerns: a decisive duel between two gunfighters.
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1917 Overland Monthly Sept. 257/2 When it came to the show-down the man from Higher'n Haman was pulling a gun. But the Terror was quicker.
1957 Billboard 23 Sept. 12/3 The classic late-afternoon showdown in the dusty street with the villain trying to pull a concealed Derringer.
1994 Herald (Glasgow) 1 Apr. 2 It [sc. The Quick and the Dead] culminates in a showdown between Stone and Hackman, in his third Western in three years.
2004 R. Nott Films Randolph Scott 80/1 Allan Dwan knew how to stage action sequences:..street fights, a stagecoach robbery and the final showdown at the O.K. Corral.
4. U.S. Military = showdown inspection n. at Compounds. Now rare.
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society > armed hostility > military organization > ceremonial > [noun] > surprise inspection
showdown inspection1917
showdown1920
1920 L. S. Baker Company Hist: Story of Company B 71 We were caught by Brigadier-General Pierce, and had a showdown when we least expected it.
1928 L. H. Nason Top Kick 27 When we get back to billets they'll have a showdown, an' anyone that's shy, finds it on the payroll.
1945 S. M. Kahn Jrnl. 11 Apr. in Between Tedium & Terror (2000) vi. 252 With all these showdowns, I got hooked for 23 cents for a missing canteen cup!
Compounds
showdown inspection n. U.S. Military an unannounced inspection of soldiers' equipment and clothing.
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society > armed hostility > military organization > ceremonial > [noun] > surprise inspection
showdown inspection1917
showdown1920
1917 Seventh Regiment Gaz. Feb. 102/2 Will any of us forget..the retreats, reveilles, drums and bugles,..and showdown 'spections?
1918 I. L. Peterson Jrnl. 16 May in Wisconsin Mag. Hist. (1924) 8 202 After show-down inspection, Phair and I reconnoiter around the country.
1963 J. O. Killens And then we heard Thunder ii. 14 Showdown Inspection with all of your equipment spread out before you to be checked by the pink-cheeked officers.
2010 M. J. Granger Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay (2012) 33 There would be the occasional show down inspection, or the drill sergeants would mosey through our lockers.
showdown poker n. a form of poker in which players stake an ante, receive a hand of cards, and have a showdown without new cards being drawn.
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society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > poker > [noun] > varieties of
vaunt1598
brag1734
draw poker1847
penny ante1855
freeze-out1856
draw1857
straight poker1864
stud poker1864
mistigris1875
highball1878
whisky-poker1878
stud-horse poker1881
stud horse1882
stud1884
showdown poker1892
show poker1895
red dog1919
showdown1927
strip-poker1929
manilla1930
Hold 'Em1964
Texas Hold 'Em1968
pai gow poker1985
1892 Cosmopolitan Apr. 709/2 Then you'll fetch us a new pack of cards, an' we'll play just five little hands of plain show-down poker, one draw apiece.
1901 R. F. Foster Poker 16 If the limit is ten cents only, and the blind is one, the game becomes ‘showdown Poker’ because a player will bet the limit on anything and everything.
1973 D. Westheimer Going Public v. 79 How about one hand of showdown poker?.. Low man does the job?
2005 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 18 Dec. (Seven) 93 Who got what was decided by a single hand of showdown poker.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1870