A children's card game where players draw cards from each other and discard pairs; the player left with the unmatched 'old maid' (joker) loses.
living without one's mother-in-law
Slang expression referring to a situation where a married couple lives apart from the wife's mother, often implying relief from mother-in-law interference.
When I was a child, I often played Old Maid.
In Old Maid, the person left holding the joker at the end loses.
Since we got married, we've been living without my mother-in-law, so it's a relief.
Common katakana-kanji mixed spelling for the card game.
Hiragana-kanji mixed spelling, also seen.
Rare kanji form using 婆 for ばば.
From ババ (old woman, joker) + 抜き (removing, drawing out), referring to the card game where the 'old maid' card is left at the end. The slang sense extends the idea of 'removing the old woman' to living without the mother-in-law.