Sardines

noun

noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    plural of sardine form-of, plural
  2. 2
    A children's game in which the players hide together, lying side by side. uncountable

    "As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard. The train is a '221'+'220' combo to allow for social distancing - a luxury on an XC train as normally you're playing sardines, so I make the most of it."

  3. 3
    plural of Sardine form-of, plural

Synonyms

All synonyms
fishpilchardpilchardsardsardsardina pilchardus

Example

More examples

"Passengers are packed in like sardines on city buses."

Etymology

The game name refers to sardines tightly packed in a can.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.