cheating at dice

[curiousmarcus]

Father: Our son's starting to cheat at dice. I told him to roll it, and he would pretend to, but he's really first choosing the side he wants, turning that face to the side, and then gingerly rolling it so that the side he wants comes out on top. It's fascinating to watch him be intelligent enough to know that the side he wants should not be on top while the dice is still in his palm. He knows to put it on the side, and make the dice make just one turn when rolling it.

Mother: Well, it would be easier to cheat if he would position the dice so that the side he wants would be facing his palm, and just turn his palm over as he pretends to roll the dice. This way, he wouldn't have to worry above over-rolling the dice. (he wouldn't have to worry above making sure the dice make just one turn.)

Father: Yeah, right. Teach him how to cheat (sarcastically).

Mother: I'm just saying.

The above description may be a little bit verbose, but I'd like to describe exactly what the child was doing. Can anyone make it pithy?

 

[Rover_KE]

Your description is pithy enough, Marcus.

Breaking his fingers is a bit drastic. Make him put the dice in a cup and rattle it about before throwing it.

Usage note: The word 'dice' is actually the plural of 'die', but it's used so often to mean one of them that we have to accept 'one dice' and 'two dice' as correct. ('Two dices' is wrong, though.)

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Father: Our son's starting to cheat at dice. I told him to roll them. . . .

Dice is plural. Die is singular. Another weird English word.

 

[emsr2d2]

Dice is plural. Die is singular. Another weird English word.

Well, not weird, just irregular. We have plenty of them!

 

[curiousmarcus]

Dice is plural. Die is singular. Another weird English word.

Okay, so if you use dice even when referring to just a single die (which is already very common), you'd have to use them?

EDIT: I quoted the wrong post. It should have been Charlie Bernstein's correction of my post: I told him to roll them. . . .

 

[GoesStation]

I wouldn't use the word dice to refer to a single die. Someone who thought dice was both singular and plural would use It for a single "dice" and them for two or more.

 

[Tdol]

Would this method of cheating count as palming the die/dice?

 

[GoesStation]

Palming something usually means concealing it in the palm of one's hand. That doesn't describe this kind of cheating. I imagine dedicated craps players have a word for this but I don't know what it might be.