Meaning & use
snooker
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablesportBritish
a cue game played on a large cloth-covered table, in which players pot red and colored balls in a set order to score points.
Grammar: Used without an article for the sport: play snooker.
Patterns
- play snooker
- a game of snooker
My uncle plays snooker every Friday at the club.
The snooker final lasted over four hours.
We watched snooker on television all evening.
verbtransitivesport
to leave an opponent unable to hit the target ball directly, because another ball is in the way.
Grammar: Takes an object: snooker your opponent.
Patterns
- snooker someone
He tried to snooker his opponent behind the green.
She snookered him with a clever safety shot.
You can snooker a player by hiding the white ball.
verbtransitiveinformalfigurative
to put someone in a difficult position where they can do nothing, or to trick them.
Grammar: Usually in the passive: we were snookered.
Patterns
- be snookered by something
I'm snookered if the printer breaks now.
The delay snookered our whole schedule.
They were snookered by the new rule.
Word forms
| third person singular | snookers |
|---|---|
| past tense | snookered |
| past participle | snookered |
| -ing form | snookering |
Common combinations
- play snooker
- Dad taught me to play snooker.
- a snooker table
- The pub has a full-size snooker table.
- snooker player
- She is a professional snooker player.
- snooker hall
- We went to the snooker hall after school.
- a snooker cue
- He chalked his snooker cue carefully.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pool
- Pool is played on a smaller table with fewer balls, and is the usual American game.
- billiards
- Billiards is the older general word for cue sports and uses fewer balls.
- stymie
- Stymie in the figurative sense means block, close to the verb snooker.
- trap
- Trap is more general, while snooker suggests being stuck in a strategic position.
Word family
Commonly confused: snooker or pool?
snooker vs pool
Pool uses a smaller table and fewer balls than snooker.
Practice
My uncle loves to play ___ at the club on Friday nights.
Choose one answer.
Snooker is played with cues on a table. Chess is a board game, rugby is played on a field, and archery uses bows.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “snooker”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.