pool

pool, game: see billiards.

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pool

 or pocket billiards

Billiards game played on an oblong table having six pockets with 15 object balls and a white cue ball. At the beginning of play, the balls are arranged (racked) in a pyramid formation with its apex on a spot near the foot of the table. The first player breaks the formation by driving the cue ball into it; to continue play, he or she must hit a ball into a pocket. In the popular “8-ball” game, the first player (or team) to sink either the seven solid-coloured balls (numbered 1–7) or the seven banded (striped) balls (9–15), finishing with the black 8-ball, wins. In “9-ball,” only the balls numbered 1–9 are used, and they must be sunk sequentially; the player who sinks the 9-ball wins. Pool probably reached its present form in England and France by c. 1800; today it is most popular in North America.

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pool¹

1. a deep part of a stream or river where the water runs very slowly

2. an underground accumulation of oil or gas, usually forming a reservoir in porous sedimentary rock

3. See swimming pool

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pool²

1. the combined stakes of the betters in many gambling sports or games; kitty

2. Commerce a group of producers who conspire to establish and maintain output levels and high prices, each member of the group being allocated a maximum quota; price ring

3. any of various billiard games in which the object is to pot all the balls with the cue ball, esp that played with 15 coloured and numbered balls; pocket billiards

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pool [pül]

(civil engineering)

A body of water contained in a reservoir, by a dam, or by the gates of a lock.

(geology)

Underground accumulation of petroleum.

(hydrology)

A small deep body of water, often fed by a spring.

(mining engineering)

To wedge for splitting in quarrying or mining.

To undermine or undercut.

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POOL - Parallel Object-Oriented Language. A series of languages from Philips Research Labs. See POOL2, POOL-I, POOL-T.