Association of British Scrabble Players

Culture > Sport > Billiards and Snooker


Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.


baize a coarse woollen green cloth used to cover the surface of the table; (verb) to cover with baize.
balk baulk the part of a snooker table marked off by the BALKLINE.
balkline baulkline a line drawn across a billiard table.
bank a cushion of a snooker or billiard table; (verb) to propel a snooker ball against the cushion.
billiard a particular kind of shot in BILLIARDS.
billiards any of various games played with a cue and balls on a rectangular table
bouclee a support for a CUE in billiards.
break a consecutive series of successful strokes, or the number of points scored from such a series.
brickwall a corruption of BRICOLE, a shot in billiards, involving a rebound.
bricole a kind of shot in billiards, involving a rebound.
bridge a support for a snooker CUE.
cannon a stroke in billiards in which the cue ball hits both the red and the opponent's ball; a similar stroke in snooker; (verb) to make a cannon shot.
carambole a CANNON shot in billiards; (verb) to make a CANNON shot.
carom carrom a cannon in billiards; (verb) to make a CANNON shot.
contrecoup a KISS, a light touch of a moving snooker ball on another.
coup in billiards, the act of putting a ball in a pocket without having hit another ball.
cue the stick you hit the ball with.
cueist a billiards-player.
cush cushion the padded lining on the inside of the table.
double to cause a ball to rebound.
eightball the black ball in POOL.
english to cause a billiard ball to spin around its vertical axis.
hazard in billiards, the pocketing of the object ball (winning hazard), or of the player's own ball after contact (losing hazard);
jigger an old name for a REST for a billiard cue.
kiss a light touch of a moving snooker ball on another.
mace an old name for a billiard CUE.
masse a vertical shot in billiards. The e has an accent.
miscue to cue a ball wrongly > MISCUES, MISCUING or MISCUEING, MISCUED.
pique a shot with backspin, made with the cue vertical or nearly so (cf. MASSÉ). The e has an accent.
plant a shot in which one pockets, or tries to pocket, a ball by causing it to be propelled by another ball which has been struck by the cue ball.
pocket one of a number of net bags at the side of the table.
pool a game like snooker but played on a smaller table.
pooler a person taking part in pool.
pot to put a ball in a POCKET.
respot to put a ball back on its spot.
rest a support for a snooker cue.
screw to put SIDESPIN or BACKSPIN on the cue ball.
side sidespin a spin given to a ball causing it to swerve and regulating its angle of rebound.
snooker a situation where the path between the cue ball and the ball to be played is blocked, forcing an indirect shot to be played; (verb) to place another player in this situation.
spider a rest for a cue in snooker or billiards, specifically one with legs arched wide and offering several cueing positions.
unpotted not potted.