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.

Workers on Saturday were resurfacing the bottom of Washington's famous Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with "American flag blue"-colored material used in swimming pools, following an order by US President Donald Trump.

From Barron's • Apr. 25, 2026

The item is banned in most public swimming pools in France - but allowed on beaches.

From BBC • Apr. 23, 2026

In the leadup to that downturn, investors did not know which banks held the losses from pools of underwater subprime mortgages when the housing market collapsed.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 14, 2026

During this time, he entered one of the pools and almost died, the suit states.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026

There was one major difference between the fuel in the spent storage pools and the fuel inside the reactors.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

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