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Definition of 'fair game'

fair game

uncountable noun

If you say that someone is fair game, you mean that it is acceptable to criticize or attack them, usually because of the way that they behave.

Politicians were always considered fair game by cartoonists.

COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

fair game in British

noun

1.

a legitimate object for ridicule or attack

2. hunting archaic

quarry that may legitimately be pursued according to the rules of a particular sport

Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

fair game in American

1.

game that may lawfully be hunted

2.

any legitimate object of attack or pursuit

Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Example sentences containing 'fair game'

These examples have been automatically selected and may contain sensitive content. Read more…

Fair game, you may feel. Times, Sunday Times (2010)Everything like that was fair game, and it was always fair game to tease the keepers and those people who had apple trees and things. Max Arthur Lost Voices of the Edwardians: 19011910 in the words of the Men & Women Who Were There (2006)

Nearby words of 'fair game'

Source

Definition of fair game from the Collins English Dictionary

Direct and indirect objects

The object of a sentence(if there is one) normally comes after the verb phrase. Whether there is an object or not depends on the meaning of the verb. For example, if you want to talk about what someo...

Read more about 'Direct and indirect objects'

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