Skip to main content Skip to Search Box
Listen
Email

Topic Pages contain an overview, definitions, biographies, related topics, images, plus links to relevant articles and other content provided by your library. Topic Page: Billiards

Definition: billiards from Dictionary of Sports and Games Terminology

(sport) (1) general term for a game played with a cue and balls on a baize-covered table, the aim being either to send the balls into its pockets or to place them in a strategically advantageous position; (2) the specific name of such a game, played with two cue balls (plain ball and spot white) and one red

Summary Article: billiards
From The Columbia Encyclopedia

any one of a number of games played with a tapered, leather-tipped stick called a cue and various numbers of balls on a rectangular, cloth-covered slate table with raised and cushioned edges. Games similar to billiards were popular in England and France in the 16th cent., and evidence even suggests that a billiardslike game was played in the 14th cent. The country of origin is disputed—England, France, Italy, Spain, and China have been credited by various historians with its invention. The game in its present form was probably fully developed by 1800. There are three main types of billiards: carom billiards, pocket billiards (also known as pool), and snooker. Carom billiards is played with three balls, a cue ball and two object balls, on a pocketless table; scoring is by caroms only, i.e., by causing the cue ball to strike the object balls in specified ways. Pocket billiards is played with 15 object balls and a cue ball on a table with six pockets; the essential object of the game is to cause the object balls to enter the pockets. Snooker is similar to pocket billiards, except that it uses 21 object balls and smaller pockets. There are many additional variations of the basic games, depending on the number of balls used, the positioning of the balls, the boundaries on the table, and the scoring. Among the variations are Chicago, golf, rotation, balk-line, and bumpers. William Frederick Hoppe is generally considered the foremost billiards player of all time.

  • See Byrne, R. , Byrne's Standard Book of Pool and Billiards (1987).
"billiards." In The Columbia Encyclopedia, by Paul Lagasse, and Columbia University. 8th ed. Columbia University Press, 2018. https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/billiards
billiards. (2018). In P. Lagasse & Columbia University, The Columbia encyclopedia. (8th ed.). [Online]. New York: Columbia University Press. Available from: https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/billiards [Accessed 7 December 2019].
"billiards." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Paul Lagasse, and Columbia University, Columbia University Press, 8th edition, 2018. Credo Reference, https://search.credoreference.com/content/topic/billiards. Accessed 07 Dec. 2019.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, © Columbia University Press 2018

Related Articles

Full text Article billiards
The Macmillan Encyclopedia

A game for two players, using cues and balls on a table. In English billiards the table measures 12 × 6 ft (3.6 × 1.8 m) and has...

Full text Article billiards
Word Origins

[16 century] Billiard comes from French billard , which is the name not only of the game, but also of the cue it is played with. And the...

Full text Article billiards
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia

Any of various games played on a cloth-topped, cushion-railed rectangular table by driving small, hard balls against one another or into pockets wi

See more from Credo