ばば抜(ぬ)き

ばばぬき
noun
Old Maid (card game)
leisureentertainment
1. Old Maid (card game)
A card game in which players draw cards from each other and discard pairs; whoever is left holding the joker (ばば) at the end loses.
ばば抜(ぬ)きをしよう。
Let's play Old Maid.
ばば抜(ぬ)きで最後(さいご)まで残(のこ)ってしまった。
I ended up being the last one left in Old Maid.
正月(しょうがつ)は家族(かぞく)みんなでトランプを出(だ)して、ばば抜(ぬ)きや七並(しちなら)べをして遊(あそ)んだ。
At New Year the whole family got out the cards and played Old Maid and Sevens.

ばば here means the joker, the card nobody wants to keep. The game is one of the most common family card games in Japan, along with 七並(しちなら)べ (Sevens) and 神経衰弱(しんけいすいじゃく) (Concentration).

Common collocations

Watch out

トランプ in Japanese means a deck of playing cards, so トランプをする means to play cards.

Related Words

Related: トランプ (playing cards)
general
Added 2026.10.3 4:32 · Revised 2026.10.10 15:21
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