game over
English
editEtymology
editThe message originated on pinball machines and has been very widely used in video games.
Pronunciation
editPhrase
edit- (video games) A message signaling that the game has ended, usually because the player failed (for example by losing all of their lives) but sometimes following successful completion of the game.
- 1984, Robert Maxxe, Arcade:
- Before I could figure out what the hell was the object of the game, I hear the thing go boom-boom, and the screen lights up with a sign: game over.
- (by extension) The end of some ongoing situation due to either failure or success, typically failure.
- If your wife finds out about us, it's game over!
- 1986, Aliens:
- That's it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?
- 2004, Ryan Russell, Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent, page xxi:
- Once we started attacking that network from the inside, it was pretty much game over.
Translations
editmessage
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end of some ongoing situation
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See also
editNoun
editgame over (plural game overs)
- (video games) An appearance of a game over message.
- When you die too many times in this game, you get a game over.
Verb
editgame over (third-person singular simple present game overs or games over, present participle game overing or gaming over, simple past and past participle game overed or gamed over)
- (video games, rare, intransitive) To receive a 'game over' message.
- (video games, rare, transitive) To deliver to someone a 'game over' message.
Alternative forms
editFurther reading
editCategories:
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English phrases
- English multiword terms
- en:Video games
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English verbs
- English phrasal verbs
- English phrasal verbs formed with "over"
- English terms with rare senses
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English ellipses