the verb SKUNK in cribbage (revival)

[Wilson Gray]

In Ping-Pong, as I learned it in Saint Louis, a player is "skunked,"
and automatically loses the game, when the score reaches 7-0 in favor
of his opponent. There's another term, "whitewashed," used to describe
the situation in which a player scores 15 before his opponent scores
7. Again, the player on the short end of the score automatically
loses.

WRT hearts, what you describe is what I know as "shooting the moon."

WRT to cribbage, when one player pegs out before his opponent turns
the first corner, the opponent is said to have been "left in the
lurch."

In whist, the pair that turns the first seven tricks is said to
"skunk" the other pair.

-Wilson



On 11/20/06, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: the verb SKUNK in cribbage (revival)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And in my earlier days, in the Northeast -- Boston, at least.
>
> Isn't "skunk" also used in some card games?  Perhaps hearts, when one
> player takes all the points, and thereby wins.  A half-hearted Google
> search also showed up this, at
> http://www.dolphincovegames.com/dcgs/games/euchre/gloss.php, about
> euchre:  "to win a game with the opponent having scored zero points;
> to shut out an opponent: Also whitewash"
>
> Joel
>
> At 11/20/2006 10:13 AM, you wrote:
> >This use of SKUNK is alive and well in Minnesota as well.  I have
> >know of it all
> >my cribbage-playing life. In fact, some of the cribbage boards on
> >which I played
> >during college in Minneapolis had an actual line drawn on them to
> >make the SKUNK
> >even clearer. It is the ultimate humiliation to any cribbage player
> >(except for
> >the dreaded DOUBLE-SKUNK).
> >
> >John M. Spartz -- MN(31), IN(3)
> >__________________________________________
> >
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