A Spanish game of cards called the royal game of ombre. Prior has an epigram on the subject. He says he was playing ombre with two ladies, and though he wished to lose, won everything, for Fortune gave him “success in every suit but hearts.” Pope has immortalised the game in his Rape of the Lock.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.