May game

English

Noun

May game (plural May games)

1. (now chiefly historical) An entertainment held as part of the spring celebrations in May, especially on May Day. [from 16th c.]
2. (now chiefly Somerset, Devon, Cornwall) An object of ridicule; a laughingstock. [from 16th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     ‘Ah, my deare Lord! what sight is this?’ quoth she, / ‘What May-game hath misfortune made of you?’

References

• Joseph Wright, editor (1903), “MAY-GAME”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volumes IV (M–Q), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.