eight ball
Britishnoun
-
(in pool) the black ball, marked with the number eight
-
in a difficult situation; snookered
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I can’t predict the future. I don’t have an eight ball in front of me. We’ll see what happens.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
A day never passed without me fully aware that we now lived our lives squarely behind the eight ball.
From Salon ● May 11, 2025
Our magic eight ball reads: ask again later.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
As music thrummed in the background, guests congregated around the shiny orbs, which looked like a cross between a giant eight ball and HAL 9000, the rogue computer in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 7, 2023
We were a proud pair, dropping by the pool hall, playing a quick game of eight ball, and then, as the sky darkened, swaggering down the sidewalk.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
