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
What happens to the click economy if a smooth-talking A.I. becomes a strange mutant of a spokesperson and a magic eight ball, or something like an avatar for the sum total of human knowledge?
From Slate • Mar. 1, 2023
“I think we’re behind the eight ball on this one,” Mr. Shepherd added.
From New York Times • Nov. 30, 2022
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.
