1.
2.
[syn: wits, marbles]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
marbles \marbles\ n.
A children's game played with marbles[3], little balls made
of a hard substance (as glass).
[WordNet 1.5]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
marbles
n 1: a children's game played with little balls made of a hard
substance (as glass)
2: the basic human power of intelligent thought and perception;
"he used his wits to get ahead"; "I was scared out of my
wits"; "he still had all his marbles and was in full
possession of a lively mind" [syn: wits, marbles]
The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
marbles
pl.n.
[from mainstream ?lost all his/her marbles?] The minimum needed to build
your way further up some hierarchy of tools or abstractions. After a bad
system crash, you need to determine if the machine has enough marbles to
come up on its own, or enough marbles to allow a rebuild from backups, or
if you need to rebuild from scratch. ?This compiler doesn't even have
enough marbles to compile hello world.?
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
marbles
(From the mainstream "lost his marbles") The minimum
needed to build your way further up some hierarchy of tools or
abstractions. After a bad system crash, you need to
determine if the machine has enough marbles to come up on its
own, or enough marbles to allow a rebuild from backups, or
if you need to rebuild from scratch. "This compiler doesn't
even have enough marbles to compile hello, world."
[Jargon File]
(1998-05-21)