numbers game
noun
Forms numbers games
- noun A lottery in which bettors attempt to guess which numbers will later be drawn randomly; especially, an illicit one. “Back in that day, mafias ran the numbers games and there was no such thing as a state lottery.”
- noun The incorrect use of statistics (numbers) to reflect a desired result (usually misleading). “They're playing a numbers game to make it look like seat belts and vaccines are dangerous.”
- noun An activity that benefits from having many things to work with or on; a focus on quantity. “In this business, breakeven is a numbers game: if you can achieve enough volume, you'll be all right.”
- noun (uncommon, sports) A game or sport that is dominated by analytics. “Somehow, to me, it's not quite as fun now that they've turned it into a numbers game.”
Synonyms
numbers[Appendix:Glossary numbers pool numbers racket numbers
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “numbers game”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details