pool table
36
2.5
- noun
- /puːl ˈteɪbəl/
:
mesa de billar
- The game room has a large pool table where friends gather to play on weekends.
- a horizontal pool table
- a pool table straightening mechanism
- oscillation of the pool table
Imagine you've got a pool ball rolling along a pool table at a constant speed.
- Imagine you've got a pool ball rolling along a pool table at a constant speed.
- Then you can place other balls on another pool table at the right places and give them the correct kick.
- I think a lot of people would have spent much more time paying attention in their geometry class than in their physics class had they known about your pool tables.
- I've I bought a pool table and it's I need the whole room.
Examples
-
Hey, the eight ball, it's missing from the pool table.
-
Hey, Dad, how come you never got a pool table for the house?
-
And they have a nice big pool table in here as well.
-
Hi, as you can see there is no longer a pool table behind me.
-
Get that pool table over here.
-
Listen, we got a pool table over there.
-
The rules of the game require that the pool table be horizontal.
Academic text (1996) -
I found Trace standing with Roy at the pool table, a fresh drink in his hand.
Fiction book (1999) -
There's a pool table, a bar, and a door.
-
The inner room was a little emptier, but the pool table was in use.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
1
3.4
A large flat table with a smooth cloth surface for playing games like pool or snooker
How Big
36
2.5
- US
19
3.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a table used for playing pool' is directly and transparently composed from 'pool' (the cue sport) modifying 'table' (a flat-topped piece of furniture), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the referent. This noun–noun compounding pattern (modifier + head) is common cross-linguistically and follows regular English composition rules, making the expression immediately comprehensible.
Etymology
Pool table comes from the word pool, where people put money together in a 'pool' to bet, and table, the flat surface they played on. So the table used for those betting games became called a pool table, which is why today it means the heavy flat table with pockets used to play pool.