pool
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /puːl/
ipa: /pul/
ipa: /pʉl/
rhymes: -uːl
homophone: Poole
homophone: pull (accents with FOOT-GOOSE merger or full-fool merger)
homophone: pall (accents with fool-fall merger)
homophone: Paul (accents with fool-fall merger)
Forms: form: pools
form: poole
Etymology: 1. From French poule (“collective stakes in a game”). The French word "poule" in this context is an abbreviation of "poulain, pouliche" (foal, filly), and referred to races with female horses under 3 years old. It then became used by punters to designate bets on that race, and started to be used from the racetrack to the stadiums.
2. The OED suggests that this may be a transferred use of poule (“hen”), which has been explained anecdotally as deriving from an old informal betting game in France - 'jeu de poule' - Game of Chicken (or Hen, literally) in which poule became synonymous with the combined money pot claimed by the winner.
Senses: examples: text: The 4-BEP and 4-CEP stock is maintained in a common pool for both Chatham and South Eastern fast main-line services.
ref: 1962 June, Rupert Shervington, “The planning and execution of the Kent Coast electrification”, in Modern Railways, page 390:
glosses: A supply of resources.
examples: text: dating pool
text: There is a limited pool of candidates from which to choose the new manager.
text: This is not necessarily surprising; employers often use recessions to pay new workers less because they have such a large pool of potential applicants to choose from, says Ruth Milkman, the Labor Studies Chair at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies.
ref: 2020 October 15, Alana Semuels, “Workers Who Were Laid Off Say They're Being Passed Over—For Their Own Jobs”, in Time:
glosses: A supply of resources.
A number of people when considered as a resource.
topics: games
glosses: A game at billiards, in which each of the players stakes a certain sum, the winner taking the whole; also, in public billiard rooms, a game in which the loser pays the entrance fee for all who engage in the game.
examples: text: He plays pool at the billiard-houses, and may be seen engaged at cards and dominoes of forenoons.
ref: 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 23, in The Book of Snobs:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A cue sport played on a pool table. There are 15 balls, 7 of one colour or solids, 7 of another color or stripes, and the black ball (also called the 8 ball). A player must pocket all their own colour balls and then the black ball in order to win.
glosses: In rifle shooting, a contest in which each competitor pays a certain sum for every shot he makes, the net proceeds being divided among the winners.
topics: fencing
government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
synonyms: poule
glosses: A group of fencers taking part in a competition.
synonyms: group
qualifier: rugby union
glosses: A set of teams playing each other in the same division, while not during the same period playing any teams that belong to other sets in the division.
glosses: Any gambling or commercial venture in which several persons join.
glosses: The stake played for in certain games of cards, billiards, etc.; an aggregated stake to which each player has contributed a share; also, the receptacle for the stakes.
examples: text: The pool took all the wheat offered below the limit.
text: He put $10,000 into the pool.
glosses: A combination of persons contributing money to be used for the purpose of increasing or depressing the market price of stocks, grain, or other commodities; also, the aggregate of the sums so contributed.
glosses: A set of players in quadrille etc.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: A mutual arrangement between competing lines, by which the receipts of all are aggregated, and then distributed pro rata according to agreement.
topics: law
glosses: An aggregation of properties or rights, belonging to different people in a community, in a common fund, to be charged with common liabilities.
Derived terms: antipool
blind pool
bumper pool
carpool
cesspool
cowboy pool
cowpool
deadpool
dirty pool
gene pool
Kelly pool
meme pool
motor pool
office pool
pool hall
poolroom
pool spray
poolster
pool table
subpool
unpool
vanpool
wordpool