DICE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dice mean? 

• DICE (noun)
  The noun DICE has 1 sense:

1. a small cube with 1 to 6 spots on the six faces; used in gambling to generate random numbers

  Familiarity information: DICE used as a noun is very rare.

• DICE (verb)
  The verb DICE has 2 senses:

1. cut into cubes

2. play dice

  Familiarity information: DICE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DICE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small cube with 1 to 6 spots on the six faces; used in gambling to generate random numbers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

dice; die

Hypernyms ("dice" is a kind of...):

cube; square block (a block in the (approximate) shape of a cube)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dice"):

five; five-spot (a playing card or a domino or a die whose upward face shows five pips)

four; four-spot (a playing card or domino or die whose upward face shows four pips)

one-spot (a domino or die whose upward face shows one pip)

six; six-spot (a playing card or domino or die whose upward face shows six pips)

Derivation:

dice (play dice)

dice (cut into cubes)

• DICE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they dice    ... he / she / it dices   
Past simple: diced   
Past participle: diced   
-ing form: dicing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cut into cubes

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

cube; dice

Context example:

cube the cheese

Hypernyms (to "dice" is one way to...):

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The chefs dice the vegetables

Derivation:

dice (a small cube with 1 to 6 spots on the six faces; used in gambling to generate random numbers)

dicer (a mechanical device used for dicing food)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Play dice

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "dice" is one way to...):

gamble (play games for money)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

dice (a small cube with 1 to 6 spots on the six faces; used in gambling to generate random numbers)

 Context examples 

“Mort de ma vie!” Aylward shouted, looking down at the dice.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They have found that the genetic dice are loaded in favour of thin people and against those at the obese end of the spectrum.

(Slim people have a genetic advantage when it comes to maintaining their weight, University of Cambridge)

"Come on, everybody drink," Joe called, as they rattled the dice and rolled them out on the damp bar.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Dice?

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My new employment struck Hands all of a heap; he began to see the dice going against him, and after an obvious hesitation, he also hauled himself heavily into the shrouds, and with the dirk in his teeth, began slowly and painfully to mount.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There was a little altercation between her and Steerforth about a cast of the dice at backgammon—when I thought her, for one moment, in a storm of rage; and then I saw it start forth like the old writing on the wall.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The genetic dice are loaded against them.

(Slim people have a genetic advantage when it comes to maintaining their weight, University of Cambridge)

“Not I, in troth,” replied the other; “I have had other things to think of. There was some sort of bickering over dice, or wine, or was it a woman, coz?”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nay, they sat tway and tway at a board, him that they call Aylward and the great red-headed man who snapped the Norman's arm-bone, and the black man from Norwich, and a score of others, rattling their dice in an archer's gauntlet for want of a box.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)