Koi-koi
intj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A Japanese card game for two players played with hanafuda cards, similar to the Korean game of go-stop uncountable
"Reason: The accused has done gambling so called "Koikoi" "Atosaki" about 5 times, continuing his criminal intent, during the period from August 30, 1946, to September 19, 1946 by using Hana Cards with Takesada Mishina and several others at the house of Takesada Mishina No. 611, Imaichi, Imaichi-machi, Kamitsuga-gun, Tochigi-ken."
- 1 A call made by a potential winner in a round of koi-koi who wishes to continue the round, risking losing the points they earned so far for a chance to earn more points
"He may also continue, if he thinks he has a chance to make another bonus combination. If he takes this risk, he says, "come on." or "koi koi." but if his opponent makes a bonus combination before he can do so, he forfeits everything gained in that hand."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Reason: The accused has done gambling so called "Koikoi" "Atosaki" about 5 times, continuing his criminal intent, during the period from August 30, 1946, to September 19, 1946 by using Hana Cards with Takesada Mishina and several others at the house of Takesada Mishina No. 611, Imaichi, Imaichi-machi, Kamitsuga-gun, Tochigi-ken."
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese こいこい (koikoi), a reduplication of 来(こ)い (koi, imperative form of 来(く)る (kuru, “to come”)).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.