pools

British

/ puːlz /

plural noun

Also called: football pools. an organized nationwide principally postal gambling pool betting on the result of football matches

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of pools

C20: from _pool ² (in the sense: a gambling kitty)

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.

You can’t see your pool’s other brackets until the games tip off on Thursday.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026

Reports have suggested the Olympic pool's relatively shallow depth of seven feet may have slowed down swimmers due to increased turbulence.

From BBC • Aug. 11, 2024

Reede coordinated custom finishes for the pool’s cabanas, furniture and for the umbrellas, custom, period-correct frames and fabric.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 17, 2024

Lose to Australia and the pool’s big three will have beaten each other, meaning their results and bonus points gained against Portugal and Georgia will determine which two teams advance.

From Washington Times • Sep. 23, 2023

Chomsky had arrived at the scene, and he and Volta reached down from the pool’s edge to haul Xenocrates out of the water.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023