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Glite Dictionary
pool stick

pool stick

1 3.2
A long thin wooden tool that you use to hit the white ball in pool or billiards
  • noun
  • /puːl stɪk/
translation icon : taco de billar
  • During the game, she carefully chalked the tip of her pool stick before her shot.
  • pool stick in hand

Well, I've never used that to cue my pool stick before.

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Examples

  • He leaned against the table, holding his pool stick while waiting for his turn.

  • One of the men from the bar—he looked a little older than the rest and had a pool stick in his hand.

    Academic text (1994)

  • - Give me the pool stick.

    In Too Deep (1999)

  • Give me another pool stick.

    In Too Deep (1999)

  • Buddy stands by with a pool stick in hand.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The man with the pool stick finally got them pushed apart, and he was holding that stick in his hand and looking very angry.

    Academic text (1994)

  • He went out so fast that he forgot to put his pool stick down.

    Academic text (1994)

  • I looked over at the bar for Jack and saw that he'd made his way into the back room, where he was choosing a pool stick and talking to one of the women.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Bug-eyed Bill Collins and my Uncle Lindsey also held pool sticks.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • I picked up the pool stick to take my shot at the eight-ball.

Synonyms

cue
vspool stick
55 4.4

A long stick used to hit the ball in pool or snooker

is limited to pool and billiards only
pool cue
vspool stick
6 3.0

A long thin stick used to hit the small white ball in pool or billiards

is equivalent but uses stick wording instead of rod
cue stick
vspool stick
1 3.8

A long, thin stick used to hit the white ball in pool and billiards

is the same but does not stress length

Surface Forms

pool stick singular
pool sticks plural

Morphology

pool + stick

The compound is fully compositional: 'pool' names the game and 'stick' names a long rod, so together they straightforwardly denote the cue used in pool. There is no idiomatic shift or metaphorical meaning, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Pool stick comes from the simple picture of a long, thin stick used to play pool on a table. Because players hold that stick to hit the balls, the phrase means 'the long stick used to hit the balls in pool'.