snooker
[snoo k-er, snoo-ker]
- 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.
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- Slang. to deceive, cheat, or dupe: to be snookered by a mail order company.
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Origin of snooker
First recorded in 1885–90; origin uncertain
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for snooker
Contemporary Examples
The worst attack occurred after nightfall on Thursday at a snooker club in Quetta in an area frequented by Hazara Shia Muslims.
Historical Examples
But Snooker, as usual, tried to sneak away, his tail between his legs.
Bliss, and Other StoriesKatherine Mansfield
A year ago young Snooker had done a month for one of those very trout.
Mr. Britling Sees It ThroughH. G. Wells
But Snooker spent all his spare time biting and snuffling, and he stank abominably.
Bliss, and Other StoriesKatherine Mansfield
In some rooms it is considered fair and part of the game to snooker an opponent deliberately; in others the practice is condemned.
A four-handed game of snooker is in as rapid progress as is reasonably possible.
snooker
- 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
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- to leave (an opponent) in an unfavourable position by playing a snooker
- to place (someone) in a difficult situation
- (often passive) to thwart; defeat
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Word Origin
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
n.
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.
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v.
"to cheat," early 1900s, from snooker (n.), probably because in the game novices can easily be tricked. Related: Snookered; snookering.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper