card

Etymology 1

From Middle English carde (“playing card”), from Old French carte, from Latin charta, from Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs, “paper, papyrus”). Doublet of chart.

noun

1. A playing card.
   As each card is played in blackjack, it changes the possibilities for both player and dealer by diminishing the number and the variety of cards that may be dealt. Jan 25, 1963, “Games: Beating the Dealer”, in Time
2. (in the plural) Any game using playing cards; a card game.
   He played cards with his friends.
3. A resource or argument, used to achieve a purpose.
   The government played the Orange card to get support for their Ireland policy.
   He accused them of playing the race card.
   Having adopted civil union as their goal, proponents of the Civil Union Bill were sensitive to the need not to overplay the human rights card, aware that there was a significant degree of resistance in the New Zealand […] 2007, Luke McNamara, Human Rights Controversies: The Impact of Legal Form, page 138
   Realizing he is now boxed in on all sides, Hipper decides the only remaining card he has to play is to sell his ships as dearly as possible. The remaining German ships make a hard turn southeast, and drive headlong at the Grand Fleet. It is a brave gesture, but only eight of the ships emerge from the pall of smoke that roughly marks the original German line of advance. Two more emerge minutes later, but that is all. 17 October 2018, Drachinifel, 24:24 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 2022-08-04
4. Any flat, normally rectangular piece of stiff paper, plastic, etc.
5. (obsolete) A map or chart.
   As pilot well expert in perilous waue, / Vpon his card and compas firmes his eye […]. 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii
6. (informal) An amusing or entertaining person, often slightly eccentric.
   "He's a cheery old card," muttered Harry to Jack / As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. / . . . / But he did for them both by his plan of attack. 1918, Siegfried Sassoon, The General
   MAREK: But really the deadpan is key. You can essentially trick people into laughing at nothing. EVE: Oh, Marek, you card. 2007, Meredith Gran, Octopus Pie #71: Deadpan
7. A list of scheduled events or of performers or contestants; chiefly used in professional wrestling.
   What's on the card for tonight?
8. (cricket) A tabular presentation of the key statistics of an innings or match: batsmen’s scores and how they were dismissed, extras, total score and bowling figures.
9. (computing) A removable electronic device that may be inserted into a powered electronic device to provide additional capability.
   He needed to replace the card his computer used to connect to the internet.
10. (computing) Any of a set of pages or forms that the user can navigate between, and fill with data, in certain user interfaces.
    The button will "see" the cursor through a card domain graphic; you can then change button graphics on each card. 1993, Danny Goodman, The Complete HyperCard 2.2 Handbook, page 198
    The interaction model of WAP, originally developed for mobile phones to interact with information services in a web-like way, was based on Apple's HyperCard, and instead of pages, the user interacted with a deck of cards, which were interlinked by a scripting language. 2008, Johan Hjelm, Why IPTV?: Interactivity, Technologies, Services, page 13
    The basic building blocks of WML applications are cards. Cards are equivalent to HTML pages. Just as Web browser can show only one page at a time (except when using frames), a WAP enabled device can also show only one card at a time. 2012, Veljko Milutinovic, Frédéric Patricelli, Mastering E-Business Infrastructure, page 329
11. A greeting card.
    She gave her neighbors a card congratulating them on their new baby.
12. A business card.
    The realtor gave me her card so I could call if I had any questions about buying a house.
13. (television) A title card or intertitle: a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of the photographed action at various points, generally to convey character dialogue or descriptive narrative material related to the plot.
14. A test card.
15. (dated) A published note, containing a brief statement, explanation, request, expression of thanks, etc.
    to put a card in the newspapers
16. (dated) A printed programme.
17. (dated, figurative, by extension) An attraction or inducement.
    This will be a good card for the last day of the fair.
18. A paper on which the points of the compass are marked; the dial or face of the mariner's compass.
19. (weaving) A perforated pasteboard or sheet-metal plate for warp threads, making part of the Jacquard apparatus of a loom.
20. An indicator card.

verb

1. (US) To check IDs, especially against a minimum age requirement.
   They have to card anybody who looks 21 or younger.
   I heard you don't get carded at the other liquor store.
   Ted (Keanu Reeves): Whoa. He didn't even card us, dude. / Bill (Alex Winter): Yeah, we have to remember this place. 1989, Chris Matheson, Ed Solomon, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (motion picture)
2. (dated) To play cards.
3. (golf) To make (a stated score), as recorded on a scoring card.
   McIlroy carded a stellar nine-under-par 61 in the final round.

Etymology 2

From Middle English carde, Old French carde, from Old Occitan carda, deverbal from cardar, from Late Latin *carito, from Latin carō (“to comb with a card”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”).

noun

1. (uncountable, dated) Material with embedded short wire bristles.
2. (dated, textiles) A comb- or brush-like device or tool to raise the nap on a fabric.
3. (textiles) A hand-held tool formed similarly to a hairbrush but with bristles of wire or other rigid material. It is used principally with raw cotton, wool, hair, or other natural fibers to prepare these materials for spinning into yarn or thread on a spinning wheel, with a whorl or other hand-held spindle. The card serves to untangle, clean, remove debris from, and lay the fibers straight.
4. (dated, textiles) A machine for disentangling the fibres of wool prior to spinning.
5. A roll or sliver of fibre (as of wool) delivered from a carding machine.

Etymology 3

From Middle English carden, from Old French carder, from carde (“cotton card”); see Etymology 2 for more.

verb

1. (textiles) To use a carding device to disentangle the fibres of wool prior to spinning.
   "Isn't that true, Bertha? " asked the smith. "Yes, every word of it, my lad," said Mother Bertha, who was sitting near the hearth carding. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 252
2. To scrape or tear someone’s flesh using a metal comb, as a form of torture.
3. (transitive) To comb with a card; to cleanse or disentangle by carding.
   to card a horse
   the carded wool, he says, Is smoothly lapp'd around those cylinders 1757, John Dyer, The Fleece
4. (obsolete, transitive, figurative) To clean or clear, as if by using a card.
   It is necessary that this book carded and purged of certain base things. 1612, Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Thomas Shelton, Don Quixote
5. (obsolete, transitive) To mix or mingle, as with an inferior or weaker article.
   that card your beer, if you see your guests begin to be drunk, half small and half strong 1592, Robert Greene, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier

Etymology 4

noun

1. Abbreviation of cardinal (“songbird”).

Etymology 5

table

noun

1. Obsolete form of chard.