U

dicing

noun

gambling or playing with dice.
ornamentation, especially of leather, with squares or diamonds.

plural noun, singular die.

small cubes of plastic, ivory, bone, or wood, marked on each side with one to six spots, usually used in pairs in games of chance or in gambling.
poker dice.
any of various games, especially gambling games, played by shaking and throwing from two to six dice or poker dice onto a flat surface.Compare craps.
any small cubes.
Auto Racing. a jockeying for lead position between two or more drivers in which tactics are used to pass or keep from being passed.

verb (used with object), diced, dic·ing.

to cut into small cubes.
to decorate with cubelike figures.
to lose by gambling with dice (often followed by away).

verb (used without object), diced, dic·ing.

to play at dice.
to cause or bring about by gambling with dice.
Auto Racing. to duel with another car or cars in a dice.

Idioms

no dice, Informal. of no use or help; ineffective.

pl n

cubes of wood, plastic, etc, each of whose sides has a different number of spots (1 to 6), used in games of chance and in gambling to give random numbers
Also called: die (functioning as singular) one of these cubes
small cubes as of vegetables, chopped meat, etc
no dice slang, mainly US and Canadian an expression of refusal or rejection

verb

to cut (food, etc) into small cubes
(intr) to gamble with or play at a game involving dice
(intr) to take a chance or risk (esp in the phrase dice with death)
(tr) Australian informal to abandon or reject
(tr) to decorate or mark with dicelike shapes

“to cut into cubes,” late 14c., from dice (n.). Meaning “to play at dice” is from early 15c. Related: Diced; dicing.

early 14c., des, dys, plural of dy (see die (n.)), altered 14c. to dyse, dyce, and 15c. to dice. “As in pence, the plural s retains its original breath sound, probably because these words were not felt as ordinary plurals, but as collective words” [OED]. Sometimes used as singular 1400-1700.

see load the dice; no deal (dice).