eight-ball

== English == === Alternative forms === 8 ball, eight ball === Etymology === From eight +‎ ball. === Pronunciation === === Noun === eight-ball (countable and uncountable, plural eight-balls) (uncountable) A pocket billiards (pool) game played with sixteen balls (a cue ball and fifteen object balls) on a pool table with six pockets. (countable) The billiard ball, almost always black, bearing the number eight. (countable, slang) A portion of cocaine or methamphetamine weighing 1⁄8 of an ounce, or 3.5 grams. 2003, House of Sand and Fog, 00:43:39: (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." (countable, slang, ethnic slur) A black person. (countable, aviation, slang) A spherical attitude indicator. (countable, broadcasting) A kind of spherical microphone. ==== Derived terms ==== behind the eight-ball Chinese eight-ball === Verb === eight-ball (third-person singular simple present eight-balls, present participle eight-balling, simple past and past participle eight-balled) (pool, transitive) 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. ==== Coordinate terms ==== nine-ball === Anagrams === lightable