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snooker

 - 3 dictionary results

snook⋅er

  [snook-er, snoo-ker]
Use snooker in a Sentence
–noun
1. a variety of pool played with 15 red balls and 6 balls of colors other than red, in which a player must shoot one of the red balls, each with a point value of 1, into a pocket before shooting at one of the other balls, with point values of from 2 to 7.
–verb (used with object)
2. Slang. to deceive, cheat, or dupe: to be snookered by a mail order company.
Origin:
1885–90; orig. uncert.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To snooker
snook·er   (snŏŏk'ər)   
n.  Pocket billiards played with 15 red balls and 6 balls of other colors.
tr.v.   snook·ered, snook·er·ing, snook·ers

  1. Slang

    1. To lead (another) into a situation in which all possible choices are undesirable; trap.

    2. To fool; dupe: "Snookered by a lot of malarkey about drilling costs, a Texas jury ... added $3 billion of punitive damages" (New Republic).

  2. To leave one's opponent in the game of snooker unable to take a direct shot without striking a ball out of the required order.


[Origin unknown.]
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

snooker 
1889, the game and the word said to have been invented in India by British officers as a diversion from billiards. The name is perhaps an allusion (with reference to the rawness of play by a fellow officer) to British slang snooker "newly joined cadet" (1872). Tradition ascribes the coinage to Col. Sir Neville Chamberlain (not the later prime minister of the same name), at the time subaltern in the Devonshire Regiment in Jubbulpore. The verb meaning "to cheat" is from early 1900s, probably because novices can be easily tricked in the game.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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