Word.ws English Dictionary

poolshark

poolshark noun: a hustler who disrupts a game for his own advantage, such as by feigning incompetence to attract bets, or by harassing opponents.

Noun

poolshark (plural poolsharks)

  1. A hustler who disrupts a game for his own advantage, such as by feigning incompetence to attract bets, or by harassing opponents.
    Synonyms:
    shark

Synonyms of poolshark

Forms of poolshark

pluralpoolsharks

Origin of poolshark

Used in the title of a 1915 film. Perhaps related to cardshark, which is in turn likely a variant of cardsharp; the hyphenated phrase billiard-sharp appears in The Mikado in 1885, suggesting that perhaps both terms evolved from sharp to shark in tandem.

Questions about poolshark

What does poolshark mean?
Poolshark means a hustler who disrupts a game for his own advantage, such as by feigning incompetence to attract bets, or by harassing opponents.
What part of speech is poolshark?
Poolshark is a noun.
What is the plural of poolshark?
The plural of poolshark is poolsharks.

Words near poolshark in the dictionary

  1. pools of death
  2. Poolsbrook
  3. poolscape
  4. poolscapes
  5. poolsful
  6. poolshark
  7. poolsharks
  8. poolside
  9. poolsides
  10. poolster
  11. poolsters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poolshark (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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Cite this entry: “poolshark.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poolshark. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.