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n. 1. A card game for two to six players, requiring two or three decks of cards, in which the object is to obtain melds of three or more cards of the same rank. 2. A meld of seven cards having the same rank in this game. [Spanish canasta, basket, canasta (in reference to the container or tray used to hold the piles of undrawn and discarded cards when playing the game), from canasto, basket with a narrowing opening (influenced by cesta, basket), from Latin canistrum; see CANISTER.] |
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