Word.ws English Dictionary

dirty pool

dirty pool noun: foul play; misconduct; underhandedness.

Noun

dirty pool (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic, slang) Foul play; misconduct; underhandedness.
    • The thieves, in their turn, have developed a self-pity syndrome about the FBI, considering government surveillance to be dirty pool — unjustifiable interference with free enterprise.1967 April 21, Keith Wheeler, Sandy Smith, “Murf the Surf and his Jewel-studded Jinx”, in Life, volume 62, number 16, page 95
    • To call Harriet Pilpel "strident" because she clearly and knowledgeably opposed Brownmiller's (and Cottingham's) position is not only dirty pool, but obfuscates the issues and prevents GCN readers from having access to Pilpel's well-defended and logical reminders that […]1984 December 15, Meryl Altman, “Irresponsible Coverage”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 22, page 4

Origin of dirty pool

Probably an allusion to failing to follow the rules when playing billiards. Compare not cricket.

Questions about dirty pool

What does dirty pool mean?
Dirty pool means foul play; misconduct; underhandedness.
What part of speech is dirty pool?
Dirty pool is a noun.

Words near dirty pool in the dictionary

  1. dirty old men
  2. dirty pillow
  3. dirty pillows
  4. dirty pint
  5. dirty pints
  6. dirty pool
  7. dirty power
  8. dirty protest
  9. dirty protests
  10. dirty realism
  11. dirty rice

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dirty pool (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-dirty pool.ogg.

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