billiards

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A two-player cue sport played with two cue balls and one red ball, on a snooker sized table.

   He was playing billiards in the casino.

2. 2
   noun

   any of several games played on rectangular cloth-covered table (with cushioned edges) in which long tapering cue sticks are used to propel ivory (or composition) balls

3. 3
   noun

   Any of various games played on a tabletop, usually with several balls, one or more of which is hit by a cue.

4. 4
   noun

   plural of billiard

Etymology

From French billard, originally referring to the wooden cue stick, diminutive of Old French bille (“log, tree trunk”), from Vulgar Latin *bilia, probably of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bile (“large tree, tree trunk”)), from Proto-Celtic *belyos (“tree”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰolh₃yos (“leaf”), from *bʰleh₃- (“blossom, flower”).