Stuss

I am glad to be enlightened about stuss, a word which is not included in the O.E.D. (I never use Webster), and I am sorry to have missed the account of it in connection with Pushkin's gambling, but my attention, as I read the commentary, did occasionally flag a little. ❋ Nabokov, Vladimir (1965)

Mr. Wilson asks, "And what does he mean in the commentary when he speaks of Pushkin's 'addiction to stuss'?". ❋ Jameson, Barbara (1965)

And what does he mean in the commentary when he speaks of Pushkin's "addiction to stuss"? ❋ Wilson, Edmund (1965)

He could hobnob with bartenders and red-lighters, pass unnoticed through a slum, join casually in a stuss game, or loaf unmarked about a street corner. ❋ Arthur Stringer (1912)

It was the custom, I knew, for criminals, after they had made a haul to retire into such places as these stuss parlors, not only to spend the proceeds of their robberies, but for protection. ❋ Unknown (1908)

In a moment there was no more evidence of gambling than is afforded by any roomful of men, so easy was it to hide the paraphernalia, or, rather, lack of paraphernalia of stuss. ❋ Unknown (1908)

It was not the room devoted to stuss, but the entrance to it, which Garrick informed me was through a heavy door concealed in a little hallway, so that its very existence would not be suspected except by the initiate. ❋ Unknown (1908)

Though we had done nothing but attempt to get into the stuss room, ostensibly as players, the crowd in the cafe was pressing forward. ❋ Unknown (1908)

His following increased as he rose in gangland, and finally he came to be closely associated with Murtha himself on one hand and the "guns" and other criminals of the underworld who frequented the stuss games, where they gambled away the products of their crimes, on the other. ❋ Unknown (1908)

I could offer of the strange action that greeted our simple attempt to gain admission to the stuss room. ❋ Unknown (1908)

Garrick rose, stretched himself, yawned as though bored, and together we lounged out into the public hall, just as someone from the outside clamoured for admission to the stuss joint through the strong door. ❋ Unknown (1908)

Cafe, a regular hang-out for crooks, where they come to gamble away the proceeds of their crimes in stuss, the great game of the ❋ Unknown (1908)