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Carom

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car⋅om

  [kar-uhm]
Use Carom in a Sentence
–noun
1. Billiards, Pool. a shot in which the cue ball hits two balls in succession.
2. any strike and rebound, as a ball striking a wall and glancing off.
–verb (used without object)
3. to make a carom.
4. to strike and rebound.
Also, carrom.

Origin:
1770–80; by false analysis of carambole (taken as carom ball) < F < Sp carambola, special use of fruit name; see carambola
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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car·om   (kār'əm)   
n.  

  1. A collision followed by a rebound.

    1. A shot in billiards in which the cue ball successively strikes two other balls. Also called billiard.

    2. A similar shot in a related game, such as pool.

v.   car·omed, car·om·ing, car·oms

v.   intr.

  1. To collide and rebound; glance: The car caromed off the guardrail into the ditch.

  2. To make a carom, as in billiards.

v.   tr.
To cause to carom.

[Short for carambole, a stroke at billiards, from French, a billiard ball, from Spanish carambola, a stroke at billiards, perhaps from Portuguese, carambola; see carambola.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

carom  (n.)
1779, from Sp. carombola "the red ball in billiards," originally an orange tropical Asian fruit supposed to resemble a red billiard ball, from Marathi (southern Indian) karambal. The verb is 1860, from the noun.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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