card-house

Also found in: Thesaurus.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

card-house - an unstable construction with playing cards; "he built three levels of his cardcastle before it collapsed"

cardcastle, cardhouse, house of cards

structure, construction - a thing constructed; a complex entity constructed of many parts; "the structure consisted of a series of arches"; "she wore her hair in an amazing construction of whirls and ribbons"

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

No attempt was made to find another player, and after the young man had built three stories of a card-house, which fell down, the players strolled off in different directions.

View in context

Maggie would certainly have torn it off, if she had not been checked by the remembrance of her recent humiliation about her hair; as it was, she confined herself to fretting and twisting, and behaving peevishly about the card-houses which they were allowed to build till dinner, as a suitable amusement for boys and girls in their best clothes.