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
“It has hurt our snowpack by not adding to it. So we’re behind the eight ball throughout the state.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 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
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.
