GAMBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gamble mean? 

• GAMBLE (noun)
  The noun GAMBLE has 2 senses:

1. money that is risked for possible monetary gain

2. a risky act or venture

  Familiarity information: GAMBLE used as a noun is rare.

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

1. take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome

2. play games for money

  Familiarity information: GAMBLE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GAMBLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Money that is risked for possible monetary gain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

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

speculation; venture (an investment that is very risky but could yield great profits)

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

bet; stake; stakes; wager (the money risked on a gamble)

Derivation:

gamble (play games for money)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A risky act or venture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

danger; peril; risk (a venture undertaken without regard to possible loss or injury)

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

long shot (a venture that involves great risk but promises great rewards)

raise (increasing the size of a bet (as in poker))

Derivation:

gamble (take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome)

• GAMBLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they gamble    ... he / she / it gambles   
Past simple: gambled   
Past participle: gambled   
-ing form: gambling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

adventure; chance; gamble; hazard; risk; run a risk; take a chance; take chances

Context example:

When you buy these stocks you are gambling

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

assay; attempt; essay; seek; try (make an effort or attempt)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gamble"):

go for broke (risk everything in one big effort)

luck it; luck through (act by relying on one's luck)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

gamble (a risky act or venture)

gambler (someone who risks loss or injury in the hope of gain or excitement)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Play games for money

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

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

play (participate in games or sport)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gamble"):

dice (play dice)

shoot craps (play a game of craps)

play (bet or wager (money))

bet; play; wager (stake on the outcome of an issue)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

gamble (money that is risked for possible monetary gain)

gambler (a person who wagers money on the outcome of games or sporting events)

gambling (the act of playing for stakes in the hope of winning (including the payment of a price for a chance to win a prize))

 Context examples 

A disorder characterized by a preoccupation with gambling and the excitement that gambling with increasing risk provides.

(Pathological Gambling, NCI Thesaurus)

If you have concerns about your gambling, ask for help.

(Compulsive Gambling, NIH: Natonal Institutes of Health)

But you will promise me not to gamble, Roddy?

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You will have the ability to bring in new business if you are in sales or self-employed. (Don’t buy lotto tickets or gamble, though—this house does not rule prize winnings.)

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

"Got to take a gamble. Only way to find out is to find out."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

John gambles dreadfully, and always loses—poor boy!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Also, in his gambling, he had one besetting weakness—faith in a system; and this made his damnation certain.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He had plenty of money, but didn't know how to spend it, and got tipsy and gambled, and ran away, and forged his father's name, I believe, and was altogether horrid.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Good, as goodness might be measured in their particular class, hard-working for meagre wages and scorning the sale of self for easier ways, nervously desirous for some small pinch of happiness in the desert of existence, and facing a future that was a gamble between the ugliness of unending toil and the black pit of more terrible wretchedness, the way whereto being briefer though better paid.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

For a night and a day they gambled, and for a night and a day I counted the minutes which brought me nearer to my man.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)