eight-ball
eight-ball noun: a pocket billiards (pool) game played with sixteen balls (a cue ball and fifteen object balls) on a pool table with six pockets.
Noun
eight-ball (countable and uncountable, plural eight-balls)
- A pocket billiards (pool) game played with sixteen balls (a cue ball and fifteen object balls) on a pool table with six pockets.
- The billiard ball, almost always black, bearing the number eight.
- A portion of cocaine or methamphetamine weighing ¹⁄₈ of an ounce, or 3.5 grams.
- (a policeman confiding to a friend) ".. She had welts and bruises all over. So, one night we get called out there again, and I slip down their hallway and stuff two eight balls in his closet. Turns out he was on parole. He goes back to jail, she's safe, and I slept like a baby."2003, House of Sand and Fog, 00:43:39
- A black person.
- When a white fellow gets in the ring with an eight ball the eight ball's got no chance. You see, 'cause they call boxing the sweet science. And that's where your colored just runs into trouble. That's just that science part.
Yeah, but Joe Louis is a big 'un.2005, “Creed, OK”, in Carnivàle, episode 17
- When a white fellow gets in the ring with an eight ball the eight ball's got no chance. You see, 'cause they call boxing the sweet science. And that's where your colored just runs into trouble. That's just that science part.
- A spherical attitude indicator.
- The angle-of-attack error indicator, located to the right of the attitude "eight-ball," requires some explanation.1960, John Marshall Eggleston, Sheldon Baron, Donald C. Cheatham, Fixed-base Simulation Study of a Pilot's Ability to Control a Winged-satellite Vehicle During High-drag Variable-lift Entries, page 11
- He kept his eyes outside, stole a few glances at the "eight ball" attitude indictors^([sic]) inside, and relied on Irwin's callouts.2011, David A. Mindell, Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight, page 254
- A kind of spherical microphone.
Verb
eight-ball (third-person singular simple present eight-balls, present participle eight-balling, simple past and past participle eight-balled)
- To outplay (an opponent) by potting all one's color balls and then the black (or eight-ball) without the opponent potting a single one.
- She whips me in the first game of pool, I do not even get a shot. Eight-balled from the break.
“Have you been practising?” I ask my sister.
“Some,” she says, “play again?”
“One more.”
My sister beats me at pool in public a second time. I claim some dignity back by potting two of my balls before...2008, Edward Keating, The Joy of Ex: A Novel
- She whips me in the first game of pool, I do not even get a shot. Eight-balled from the break.
Forms of eight-ball
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | eight-balls |
| alternative form | 8 ball |
| alternative form | eight ball |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | eight-balls |
| present participle | eight-balling |
| past participle | eight-balled |
| past | eight-balled |
Origin of eight-ball
From eight + ball.
Words formed from eight-ball
Questions about eight-ball
- What does eight-ball mean?
- Eight-ball means a pocket billiards (pool) game played with sixteen balls (a cue ball and fifteen object balls) on a pool table with six pockets.
- What part of speech is eight-ball?
- Eight-ball can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of eight-ball?
- The plural of eight-ball is eight-balls.
Words near eight-ball in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: eight-ball (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-eight-ball.ogg.
Cite this entry: “eight-ball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/eight-ball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.