pool cue
6
3.0
- noun
- /puːl kjuː/
:
taco de billar
- He carefully lined up his shot, gripping the pool cue firmly before taking aim.
- holds a pool cue
- end of a pool cue
He's gave him the pool cue and he's done a double take.
- He's gave him the pool cue and he's done a double take.
- But you know when we get there, and I have no idea that when we get there, that they pull pick up the pool cues.
Examples
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- Trish, get me the pool cue.
-
Thumping the heels of their pool cues on the floor, they stood in a ragged form of attention.
Fiction book (1999) -
I just wanna show you my pool cue.
-
Hey, give me the pool cue.
-
How come you get a pool cue?
-
The man with the pool cue was up under the house now.
Fiction book (2001) -
Yeah, and he's got your pool cue back there.
-
Here's a pool cue.
-
Gomez grabs the pool cue from Villanazul and lines up with them.
Fiction book (1999) -
Men there yelled unself-consciously at the television, and women brought their own pool cues and picked lint off the felt with silk-wrapped nails.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
55
4.4
A long stick used to hit the ball in pool or snooker
1
3.8
A long, thin stick used to hit the white ball in pool and billiards
1
3.2
A long thin wooden tool that you use to hit the white ball in pool or billiards
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents are literal and directly specify the referent: 'pool' names the game and 'cue' names the long tapered stick, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer 'a cue used for pool'. This compound follows a common noun+noun composition pattern found across languages, making the meaning immediately transparent.
Etymology
Pool cue names the long, thin stick used to hit the balls in pool. The word cue comes from the French 'queue' meaning 'tail', and one popular story says players once used the tail of a coat or a walking stick to point or tap the ball, so the wooden stick kept that name and today pool cue means that hitting stick.