Follow-up on sluff - play hooky, slack off (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Garson O'Toole]

The OED does contain an example of sluff used as a verb in the domain
of card playing as Bill notes. The citation is grouped with other
examples of figurative use.

OED sluff, v. U.S. var. slough v.2 3.:
1959    T. Reese & A. Dormer Bridge Player's Dict. 206   Sluff, to
discard; to throw a card, other than a trump, of a suit different from
the one led.

Here is a 1931 citation for "sluffed" in the game of bridge.

Cite 1931 February 25, Pittsburgh Press, "Bridge: Retain Control Of
Dangerous Suit As Long As Possible, Declarer Pulls Opponent's Trump to
Win" by William E McKenney, Page 23, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Google
News Archive)

Declarer would then lead a trump which East would win with the ace.
but the declarer has already sluffed his losing club and game would be
made.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VMoaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=REsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2588,1522188&dq=sluffed
Short URL: http://goo.gl/S5QgM


Here is a 1931 example with ruff and sluff as mentioned by Alice Faber.

Cite: 1931 January 12, Spokane Daily Chronicle, Two Too Many in Trump
Suit by Wm. E. McKenney, Page 5, Spokane, Washington. (Google news
Archive)

When all players followed to the three club leads by east, east should
not continue with the seven of clubs as this would get the declarer a
ruff in one hand and a sluff in the other.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=js9XAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zfQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6323,2134126&dq=sluff

http://goo.gl/xaJcX
Garson

On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 9:07 PM, Dave Hause <dwhause at jobe.net> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Dave Hause <dwhause at JOBE.NET>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Follow-up on sluff - play hooky, slack off (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> It's on p.8 in my paperback "fifth printing" (no date specified) which
> claims Sept., 65, as the first printing.
> Dave Hause, dwhause at jobe.net
> Waynesville, MO
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 2:30 PM
> Subject: Re: Follow-up on sluff - play hooky, slack off (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> OED has sluff (v) in a card-playing sense back to 1959.
>
>
> Wilson, I'd have thought you would have read this:
>
> Robert A. Heinlein, _Farnham's Freehold_ p. 5
> "She admired the way he squeezed out the last trick, of a contract in which
> she had forced them too high, by having the boldness to sluff an ace."
> This from the Baen Books 2001 edition, but I'm sure that the quote can be
> found in the original 1964 edition.
>
>
>
>>
>> >
>> > On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 9:51 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net>
>> wrote:
>> >> 1978   Ã‚ Detroit Free Press 2 Apr. 19 c/3   East
>> >> is now squeezed in the red suitsè˙∠e must either
>> >> give up a trick to the jack of hearts or
>> >
>> > _sluff_
>> >
>> >> two diamonds, which sets up declarer's third diamond.
>> >>
>> >
>> > So, _sluff_ in the sense of "discard" in a card game *isn't* only a
>> BE thing!
>> >
>> > I never cease to be amazed by the impenetrability of the Cotton
>> > Curtain. You really *do* never know!
>>
>> I must have learned that from my grandmother, since she was the one we
>> usually played hearts and other card games with. She was white and born
>> in Seattle in 1912 or 1913.
>>
>> As a kid, I understood this to mean something like "be sneaky and get
>> rid of the card" since the pass at the start of the game allows players
>> to set themselves up to be able to sluff.
>>
>> Benjamin Barrett
>> Seattle, WA
>>
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>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
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