endgame

• end game, end-game

From end +‎ game.

• enPR: ĕndgām, IPA^(key): /ɛnd.ɡeɪm/

endgame (plural endgames)

1. (chess) The final stage of a game of chess, when there are few pieces left. [1884]

   Coordinate terms: middlegame, opening

   Rooks become much more important in the endgame.

   • 1884 April 12, The Academy, Horwitz, page 256:

     The real end game consists of a position where the method can be analytically demonstrated by which the slightly superior force can win.

2. (bridge) The final stage of a game of bridge, when there are few cards left.

   You can't really use squeeze plays until the endgame.

   • 1952, Iain Macleod, Bridge Is an Easy Game, page 190:

     Bridge writing tends to concentrate on the end game.

3. (by extension) The final stage of any game.

   Being stuck with two V tiles can make for an awkward Scrabble endgame.

4. (figuratively) The final stage of an extended process or course of events, especially with the implication of the imminent realization of a masterful strategy or plan.

   What's his endgame, do you think?

   • 2015, Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins, →ISBN, page 138:

     He had been a Commando during the war, had landed on Sword Beach and skirmished his way across the ravaged remains of Europe after D-Day before slogging out the endgame, attached to the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment.

   • 2019 April 25, Heather Schwedel, “The Myth of the Endgame”, in Slate‎:

     Like optics, it’s one of those buzzwords, beloved by pundits, that implies its users are smarter than everyone else, because they see another level that most people don’t in political machinations. In meme parlance, you may ask “Why?” but ah, an intellectual asks, “What’s the endgame?”

   • 2022 November 2, Charles A. Kupchan, “It’s Time to Bring Russia and Ukraine to the Negotiating Table”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     It is time for the United States and its allies to get directly involved in shaping Ukraine’s strategic objectives, managing the conflict, and seeking a diplomatic endgame.

5. (video games) The gameplay available in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for players who have completed all of the preset challenges.

endgame (not comparable)

1. (fandom slang, of a ship) Having become canon by the end of the plot of a work of fiction or speculated to be intended to become such.
   • 2017, Suzanne Frenk, "Telling The True Story: Queerbaiting, representation, and fan resistance in the BBC Sherlock fandom", thesis submitted to Tilburg University, page 50:

     TJLC’ers’ strong belief in Johnlock as endgame was intrinsically linked with their trust in the show’s creators, which enabled them to interpret the repeated denial of the subtext in Sherlock as part of the game.

   • 2020, Marlene King, quoted in Sara K. Day & Summer Melody Pennell, "#PLLQueerTheory: Fans’ reactions to queer representation in Pretty Little Liars", The Journal of Fandom Studies, Volume 8, Number 2, June 2020:

     I think the fans and I were pretty aligned with who we wanted as endgame couples.

   • 2021, Emily Burkhardt, Verity Trott, Whitney Monaghan, “'#Bughead Is Endgame': Civic Meaning-Making inRiverdale Anti-Fandom andShipping Practices on Tumblr”, in Television & New Media:

     One user, for example, posted, “Bughead haters can suck it. They’re endgame.”

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:endgame.

• “end, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1891.

• game-end, manèged