Word.ws English Dictionary

crown and anchor

crown and anchor noun: a game of chance popular with soldiers in the late 19th and early 20th century, in which players bet on combinations of three dice. It is equivalent to chuck-a-luck.

Noun

crown and anchor (uncountable)

  1. A game of chance popular with soldiers in the late 19th and early 20th century, in which players bet on combinations of three dice. It is equivalent to chuck-a-luck.
    • Edward Harrison, who was arrested by Detective Potter for playing the crown and anchor game, was sentenced to four days’ imprisonment.1882 (November 1), “Public Business”, The Herald, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, page 2
    • The houseman’s, “Come on my lucky lads, who says another card?” and the Crown and Anchor boardman’s “Back them up, my beauties, where you like and where you fancy.”1900 (June 26), “Trooper Milverton Ford’s Escape”, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, NSW, Australia, page 3

Questions about crown and anchor

What does crown and anchor mean?
Crown and anchor means a game of chance popular with soldiers in the late 19th and early 20th century, in which players bet on combinations of three dice. It is equivalent to chuck-a-luck.
What part of speech is crown and anchor?
Crown and anchor is a noun.

Words near crown and anchor in the dictionary

  1. crowls
  2. crowly
  3. crown
  4. crown agent
  5. crown agents
  6. crown and anchor
  7. crown antler
  8. crown antlers
  9. Crown attorney
  10. Crown attorneys
  11. crown bar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crown and anchor (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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