gymkhana

Noun

gymkhana (plural gymkhanas)

1. A competition where riders and horses display a range of skills and aptitudes.
   • In the afternoon the British held athletic sports, an impromptu military tournament, and a gymkhana, all of which caused much merriment and diversion, and the Boers profited by the cessation of the shell fire to shovel away at their trenches.1900, Winston Churchill, chapter 13, in London to Ladysmith via Pretoria
2. (India, Myanmar, dated) A place of public resort for athletic games, etc.
   • These privileged gentlemen have a fine club on the Fateh Maidan, a suburb of Hyderabad city, and they enjoy sports and races at the local gymkhana, in fact, they have a very good time, if one may judge by their appearance.1914, John Law, chapter XVI, in Modern Hyderabad (Deccan), Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co
3. (India, Myanmar, dated) A meeting for such sports.
4. Synonym of motorkhana.

   Synonyms:

   motorkhana

5. (figuratively) Any event, situation, etc., with a broad array of elements.
   • There was argument, public, private, and bar-parlor, with heated championship of one term or another on near-scientific, quasi-etymological, and a number of other grounds, but gradually one term began to dominate this philological gymkhana.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 41