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Glite Dictionary
roulette ball

roulette ball

5.2
A small hard ball that spins around a roulette wheel to pick the winning number
  • noun
  • /ruˈlɛt bɔl/
translation icon : bola de ruleta
  • Every time the roulette ball was released, the excitement in the casino intensified as everyone hoped for a winning number.

Examples

  • The roulette ball danced along the numbers, creating a sense of anticipation among the players.

  • The sound of the roulette ball bouncing against the numbers.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Just like the dust case, there is one Californian who would be killed for certain by the falling roulette ball in the wheel case.

  • As the dealer spun the wheel, the roulette ball raced around the edge before finally landing on red twenty-three.

Synonyms

ball
vsroulette ball
∞ 1.0

A round object used in games like football or tennis

is a small hard round object spun on a gambling wheel to choose winners

Surface Forms

roulette ball singular
roulette balls plural

Morphology

roulette + ball

The compound 'roulette ball' is directly compositional: 'roulette' names the gambling game/wheel and 'ball' names a small spherical object, so the phrase denotes the ball used in roulette. This straightforward noun–noun combination follows a common, cross-linguistic compounding pattern and would be inferable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

Roulette ball comes from the casino game roulette, where a dealer spins a small ball around the edge of a spinning wheel. The ball bounces into a numbered pocket, so the picture of a tiny ball landing on a number helps you remember that the roulette ball is the small ball that 'chooses' the 'winning number'.