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.
A day never passed without me fully aware that we now lived our lives squarely behind the eight ball.
From Salon • May 11, 2025
County is “behind the eight ball on that.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2024
Our magic eight ball reads: ask again later.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 9, 2024
“It feels depressing every time you see one of those reports, because it just shows us, again, how far behind the eight ball we are,” Jayapal said.
From Slate • Apr. 2, 2023
Joe and Nancy laughed, Tranquilino grimaced comically; Onofre Martinez dropped the eight ball into a side pocket.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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.
