Etymology

Noun

1. Any of a class of German mercenaries in the 16th and 17th centuries.
2. A card game, used for gambling.
   • 2007, Choderlos de Laclos, Dangerous Liaisons, tr. Helen Constantine, p. 196:

     And so it was over the game of lansquenet that I scored my first triumph.

   • 1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire:

     One could see part of the dimly lit court where under an enclosed poplar two soldiers on a stone bench were playing lansquenet.