charades

See charade. As a game, originally a clipped form of acting charades or, without talking, dumb charades but now usually understood as a plurale tantum.

charades

1. plural of charade, particularly
   1. A game in which each player acts out a word or phrase, usually based on puns of each syllable and without speaking, for the others to guess.
      • 1909, Booth Tarkington, Beasley's Christmas Party

        […] it looked like a house where they played charades, where there would be long streamers of evergreen and dozens of wreaths of holly at Christmas-time, where there were tearful, happy weddings and great throwings of rice after little brides […]

• (game): acting charades, dumb charades (obsolete)

• hard case, hardcase