a board game for two players; pieces move according to throws of the dice
"Two friends gathered at the kitchen table to play backgammon, rolling the dice to race their checkers across the board."
A board game for two players in which each has 15 stones which move between 24 triangular points according to the roll of a pair of dice; the object is to move all of one's pieces around, and bear them off the board.
"After rolling double sixes, I moved my fifteen pieces across the twenty-four points in an attempt to bear them off before my opponent could finish their game."
In plain English: Backgammon is a classic board game where two players roll dice and move their pieces around a shared track to capture each other's tokens first.
"They spent the evening playing backgammon by the fire."
Usage: The verb form is rare and typically appears only in specialized gaming contexts to describe winning when an opponent has not yet borne off all their checkers. Avoid using "backgammon" as a verb outside of this specific technical meaning, as it does not function as a general synonym for beating someone at the game.
To win at a backgammon game with the opponent having one or more pieces in the winner’s inner home row or on the bar.
"He secured a decisive victory by bearing off all his checkers while leaving two of my pieces stranded on the bar and in his inner board."
In plain English: To backgammon is to play the board game where you move pieces around a track trying to get them all off first.
"I was so tired from playing backgammon all afternoon that I decided to take an early break."
The word likely combines the prefix back with an older form of game, which comes from a Germanic root meaning amusement. It entered English to describe this specific board game that involves moving pieces backward and forward across the board.