snooker

[snoo k-er, snoo-ker]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR snooker ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a variety of pool played with 15 red balls and 6 balls of colors other than red, in which a player must shoot one of the red balls, each with a point value of 1, into a pocket before shooting at one of the other balls, with point values of from 2 to 7.

verb (used with object)

Slang. to deceive, cheat, or dupe: to be snookered by a mail order company.

Origin of snooker

First recorded in 1885–90; origin uncertain

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for snooker

obstruct, thwart, stonewall, foil, stall, impede, crimp, mystify, prevent, cramp, stump, nonplus, defeat, pigeonhole, confound, corner, crab, shelve, balk, puzzle

Examples from the Web for snooker

Contemporary Examples of snooker

The worst attack occurred after nightfall on Thursday at a snooker club in Quetta in an area frequented by Hazara Shia Muslims.
Pakistan’s Deadliest Day
Jahanzeb Aslam
January 11, 2013

Historical Examples of snooker

But Snooker, as usual, tried to sneak away, his tail between his legs.
Bliss, and Other Stories
Katherine Mansfield
A year ago young Snooker had done a month for one of those very trout.
Mr. Britling Sees It Through
H. G. Wells
But Snooker spent all his spare time biting and snuffling, and he stank abominably.
Bliss, and Other Stories
Katherine Mansfield
In some rooms it is considered fair and part of the game to snooker an opponent deliberately; in others the practice is condemned.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 7
Various
A four-handed game of snooker is in as rapid progress as is reasonably possible.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, July 25, 1917
Various

British Dictionary definitions for snooker

snooker

noun

a game played on a billiard table with 15 red balls, six balls of other colours, and a white cue ball. The object is to pot the balls in a certain order

a shot in which the cue ball is left in a position such that another ball blocks the object ball. The opponent is then usually forced to play the cue ball off a cushion

verb (tr)

to leave (an opponent) in an unfavourable position by playing a snooker

to place (someone) in a difficult situation

(often passive) to thwart; defeat

Word Origin for snooker

C19: of unknown origin

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

Word Origin and History for snooker

1889, the game and the word said in an oft-told story to have been invented in India by British officers as a diversion from billiards. The name is perhaps a reference (with regard to the rawness of play by a fellow officer) to British slang snooker "newly joined cadet" (1872). Tradition ascribes the coinage to Col. Sir Neville Chamberlain (not the later prime minister of the same name), at the time subaltern in the Devonshire Regiment in Jubbulpore.

"to cheat," early 1900s, from snooker (n.), probably because in the game novices can easily be tricked. Related: Snookered; snookering.