End Game Definition & Meaning

American

Idioms

Etymology

Examples

end game American Or endgame

noun

1. Chess. the final stage of a game, usually following the exchange of queens and the serious reduction of forces.

2. the late or final stages of any activity.

   the end game of the negotiations.

end game Idioms

1. The final stage of some process, as in The book discussed the diplomatic end game resulting in the treaty. This term, dating from about 1880, comes from chess, where it denotes the stage of a game when most of the pieces have been removed from the board. In the mid-1900s it began to be transferred to other activities.

Etymology

Origin of end game

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He wrote that Genie “cannot supplant end‑to‑end game production,” and the “AI-driven selloff creates enhanced buying opportunity.”

From Barron's

They worked together until the end, plotting together to vote out Jade, Faraaz and then Jack to secure the win as a pair at the end game.

From BBC

“I think they would only play that card if it really is the end game for current Iranian regime,” but the market is pricing in some risk of that happening, he adds.

From The Wall Street Journal

England survived by the skin of their teeth however and, after being edged out of a string of tight matches in 2024, they have found a happy habit of emerging from the end game victorious.

From BBC

In other words, recognition was part of the end game.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.