Definition of "fan-tan" [fan•-tan]

• A Chinese betting game in which the players lay wagers on the number of counters that will remain when a hidden pile of them has been divided by four. (noun)
• A card game in which sevens and their equivalent are played in sequence and the first player out of cards is the winner. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Plus, his idea for paying for all this consists of lining up a few good friends, some booze, and trying to remember the rules for fan-tan."
• "Here and there came a stream of warm light through an open door, and within, the Mongolians were gathered round the gambling-tables, playing fan-tan, or leaving the seductions of their favourite pastime, to glide soft-footed to the many cook-shops, where enticing-looking fowls and turkeys already cooked were awaiting purchasers."
• "They had raided three gambling joints but had, curiously, left five much more prosperous ones untouched even though they were on the same floor of the same tenement and he could hear the click of mah-jong tiles and the cries of the fan-tan croupiers."