Glossary
What they're saying
Half of feeling lost at a 42 table is vocabulary, and vocabulary is the easiest part to fix. Nobody will explain these to you mid-hand, so here they are.
Naming the pips
Ends aren't usually read as numbers. You'll hear the old names, especially at the low end.
- Blank
- Zero. The 5-0 is the "five-blank."
- Ace
- One. Also just "one."
- Deuce
- Two.
- Trey
- Three. Less common than deuce, but you'll hear it.
- Four, five, six
- Said plainly. Nobody gets fancy above three.
A-D
- Bid
- Your promise of how many of the 42 points your side will take. Minimum 30, one turn only, must beat the previous bid.
- Bones
- Dominoes. Nobody at a 42 table says "tiles," and hardly anyone says "dominoes."
- Boneyard
- The undrawn pile in other domino games. In 42 there isn't one; all 28 are dealt. The word still comes up out of habit.
- Boss
- The highest domino still unplayed in a suit. "The 6-3 is boss" means every higher six is already gone, so it'll win if it's led.
- Count
- The 35 points printed on five dominoes: 5-5 and 6-4 at ten each, 5-0, 4-1 and 3-2 at five each. Also used as a verb for feeding those tiles to your partner.
- Double
- A domino with matching ends. There are seven. A double is the highest tile in its suit unless the table has agreed otherwise.
F-N
- Follow suit
- Playing a domino of the suit that was led when you hold one. Not optional.
- Hand
- Either the seven dominoes you're holding or the whole seven-trick deal, depending on context. Usually obvious.
- Help
- A domino that supports your partner's contract: a count tile you can safely dump on them, or a trump that pulls one of theirs out of danger.
- Mark
- A unit of game score. Make your bid, take a mark. Most games run to seven.
- Nel-O
- The contract where you play alone and must lose every trick. Spelled a dozen ways (Nello, Nel-o, Nillo) and pronounced the same regardless. See Contracts
O-R
- Off / offs
- Any suit that isn't trump. "A boss off" is a domino outside trump that will still take a trick.
- Pass
- Declining to bid. Costs nothing and is very often right.
- Plunge
- Four-mark minimum contract requiring four doubles, where your partner names trump and your side must take all seven tricks. See Contracts
- Pull trumps
- Leading trump repeatedly to strip everyone else of theirs, so your off-suit tops are safe. The backbone of most winning hands.
- Renege
- Failing to follow suit when you could have. Costs your side the hand. Almost always accidental, and almost always because somebody forgot a tile contained trump.
S-Z
- Set
- To fall short of your bid, or to be the side that causes it. "We set them two hands running" is the happiest sentence in 42.
- Shaker
- Whoever shuffles. Rotates around the table. Bidding starts to their left.
- Sluff
- Also "throw off." Discarding a useless domino when you're void in the suit led. A sluff can never win the trick, which makes it the safe place to dump count you don't want, and the dangerous place to dump count your opponents will take.
- Table talk
- Any hint to your partner beyond the bid and the dominoes you play. Universally forbidden and universally noticed.
- Trick
- One domino from each player. Seven per hand. Worth a point each, plus whatever count lands in it.
- Trump
- The suit named by the high bidder. Every domino containing that number is a trump and beats every non-trump, no matter what its other end is.
- Walk
- To lead a domino nobody can beat. "Walking the 6-6" means leading it knowing the trick is already yours.
- Wash
- Shuffling the bones face down with both hands. The proper verb.