Word.ws English Dictionary

Kelly pool

Kelly pool noun: a pocket billiards game using numbered markers, called peas or pills, and a standard set of sixteen pool balls. Players draw peas at random from a shake bottle, which assigns to them the correspondingly numbered pool ball, kept secret from their opponents, but which they must pocket in order to win the game.

Noun

Kelly pool (uncountable)

  1. A pocket billiards game using numbered markers, called peas or pills, and a standard set of sixteen pool balls. Players draw peas at random from a shake bottle, which assigns to them the correspondingly numbered pool ball, kept secret from their opponents, but which they must pocket in order to win the game.

Origin of Kelly pool

Reportedly invented by Calistus "Kelly" Mulvaney in 1893.

Questions about Kelly pool

What does Kelly pool mean?
Kelly pool means a pocket billiards game using numbered markers, called peas or pills, and a standard set of sixteen pool balls. Players draw peas at random from a shake bottle, which assigns to them the correspondingly numbered pool ball, kept secret from their opponents, but which they must pocket in order to win the game.
What part of speech is Kelly pool?
Kelly pool is a noun.

Words near Kelly pool in the dictionary

  1. Kelly criterion
  2. kelly drive
  3. kelly drives
  4. kelly green
  5. Kelly Kettle
  6. Kelly pool
  7. Kelly Ridge
  8. Kelly tool
  9. Kelly tools
  10. Kelly's eye
  11. Kellyana

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Kelly 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.

Last updated:

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