Word.ws English Dictionary

idiot's delight

idiot's delight noun: any of various patience or solitaire card games.

Noun (1)

idiot's delight (uncountable)

  1. Any of various patience or solitaire card games.

Noun (2) capitalized: Idiot's Delight

Idiot's Delight (uncountable)

  1. Any of various games of solitaire or patience.
    • On the other hand, I know one of the biggest operators in New York who finds his recreation after a hard day’s fight with the market in solitaire—‘Idiot’s Delight’ is his especial game.1910, The Cosmopolitan, volume 50, page 761
    • They were fabulously well-to-do, and descended from Americans who had all but wrecked the planet with a form of Idiot’s Delight—obsessively turning money into power, and then power back into money again, and then money back into power again.1976, Kurt Vonnegut, chapter 2, in Slapstick, Delacorte Press, page 28

Origin of idiot's delight

So called because of the low chance of winning the game.

Questions about idiot's delight

What does idiot's delight mean?
Idiot's delight means any of various patience or solitaire card games.
What part of speech is idiot's delight?
Idiot's delight is a noun.

Words near idiot's delight in the dictionary

  1. idiot strings
  2. idiot tape
  3. idiot tax
  4. idiot's apostrophe
  5. idiot's apostrophes
  6. idiot's delight
  7. idiot's errand
  8. idiot's lantern
  9. idiot's lanterns
  10. idiot-proof
  11. idiot-proofed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: idiot's delight (page history and authors); Idiot's Delight (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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