pool

pool¹

/poohl/, n.

1. a small body of standing water; pond.

2. a still, deep place in a stream.

3. any small collection of liquid on a surface: a pool of blood.

4. a puddle.

5. See swimming pool.

6. a subterranean accumulation of oil or gas held in porous and permeable sedimentary rock (reservoir).

v.i.

7. to form a pool.

8. (of blood) to accumulate in a body part or organ.

v.t.

9. to cause pools to form in.

10. to cause (blood) to form pools.

adj.

11. of or for a pool: pool filters.

12. taking place or occurring around or near a pool: a pool party.

[bef. 900; ME; OE pol; c. D poel, G Pfuhl]

pool²

—pooler, n.

/poohl/, n.

1. Also called pocket billiards. any of various games played on a pool table with a cue ball and 15 other balls that are usually numbered, in which the object is to drive all the balls into the pockets with the cue ball.

2. the total amount staked by a combination of bettors, as on a race, to be awarded to the successful bettor or bettors.

3. the combination of such bettors.

4. an association of competitors who agree to control the production, market, and price of a commodity for mutual benefit, although they appear to be rivals.

5. Finance. a combination of persons or organizations for the purpose of manipulating the prices of securities.

6. a combination of resources, funds, etc., for common advantage.

7. the combined interests or funds.

8. a facility, resource, or service that is shared by a group of people: a car pool; a typing pool.

9. the persons or parties involved.

10. the stakes in certain games.

11. Brit. a billiard game.

12. Fencing. a match in which each teammate successively plays against each member of the opposing team.

v.t.

13. to put (resources, money, etc.) into a pool, or common stock or fund, as for a financial venture, according to agreement.

14. to form a pool of.

15. to make a common interest of.

v.i.

16. to enter into or form a pool.

adj.

17. of or belonging to a pool: a pool typist; a pool reporter.

[1685-95; < F poule stakes, lit., hen. See PULLET]

Syn. 4. corner, monopoly. 13. combine, merge, consolidate.

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or pocket billiards

Billiards game played on an oblong table having six pockets with 15 object balls and a white cue ball.

At the beginning of play, the balls are arranged (racked) in a pyramid formation with its apex on a spot near the foot of the table. The first player breaks the formation by driving the cue ball into it; to continue play, he or she must hit a ball into a pocket. In the popular "8-ball" game, the first player (or team) to sink either the seven solid-coloured balls (numbered 1–7) or the seven banded (striped) balls (9–15), finishing with the black 8-ball, wins. In "9-ball," only the balls numbered 1–9 are used, and they must be sunk sequentially; the player who sinks the 9-ball wins. Pool probably reached its present form in England and France by с 1800; today it is most popular in North America.

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▪ gambling

      method of gambling in which all money bet on the result of a particular event by a number of people is awarded to one or more winners according to conditions established in advance (taxes, operating expenses, and other charges may be deducted from the total pool before prizes are awarded).

      Since its introduction in the 19th century, the pool method of dividing the wagered total between the winners has spread to practically every country in the world and forms the rational basis for running nearly all modern lotteries (lottery) as well as most organized betting on horse racing, association football (football (soccer)) (soccer), and other professional sports.

      Traditional bookmaking, in which the bookmaker set odds in advance and then accepted bets according to them, was by nature a risky profession—heavy betting in conjunction with unexpected results (sometimes due to cheating and rigged outcome on matches) could easily lead to his ruin. Traditional lotteries with fixed promised payouts could also prove disastrous if ticket sales did not live up to expectation. The pool method relieves bookmakers from having to wager against the bettors, since they are in effect wagering among themselves. It thus guarantees that the organizers will make a profit no matter what the outcome, and it also has the effect of achieving very large payouts in proportion to the wagered amounts in situations where a single bettor or a very small number of bettors have guessed or anticipated the right outcome. Payouts have on occasion been one million or more times the original bet.

      The pool method was invented in 1864 by Joseph Oller (1839–1922), a French impresario and part-time bookmaker. He also solved the problem of the time-consuming work of dividing the prize money among the winners in proportion to the size of their wagers by inventing a mechanical machine, the compteur totalisateur, to perform the necessary calculations. Oller obtained a patent on his machine in 1868 and subsequently improved it through three additional patents. His system worked so well that in 1891 bookmaking was outlawed in France, which made Oller's pool method the only legal way of betting on horse racing. During the early 20th century, it rapidly spread to other forms of organized sports betting.

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