snooker

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

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• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sno͞oʹkə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈsnuːkə(ɹ)/
• (General American) enPR: sno͝oʹkər, IPA^(key): /ˈsnʊkɚ/
• Rhymes: -uːkə(ɹ), -ʊkə(ɹ)

snooker (countable and uncountable, plural snookers)

1. A cue sport, popular in the UK and other Commonwealth of Nations countries.
2. (snooker, pool) The situation where the cue ball is in such a position that the player cannot directly hit a legal ball with it.

   She put her opponent in a snooker.

snooker (third-person singular simple present snookers, present participle snookering, simple past and past participle snookered)

1. (intransitive) To play the game of snooker. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. (transitive) To fool or bamboozle.
   • 2018, Ezra Klein, “Paul Ryan's Long Con”, in Vox.com‎^[1]:

     But to critics like the New York Times's Paul Krugman, Ryan was an obvious con man weaponizing the deficit to hamstring Obama's presidency, weaken the recovery, and snooker Beltway centrists eager to champion a reasonable-seeming Republican.

   • 2023 August 6, Daniel Duane, “It’s August. Californians Are Still Skiing. Don’t Ask.”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

     Los Angeles would still be a piddling little town in a desert if it weren’t for Sierra snowmelt and city officials crafty enough to snooker eastern California farmers out of their water rights.

3. (transitive, snooker, pool) To place the cue ball in such a position that (the opponent) cannot directly hit the required ball with it.
4. (transitive, by extension) To put (someone) in a difficult situation.
   • 2023 July 12, Ben Jones, “'Thunderbirds' are go on the ECML...”, in RAIL, number 987, page 34:

     Sam McDougall, Operations Director for NR's East Coast Route, explains: "Until recently, if anything went wrong in the two-track section between Stoke and Doncaster, we were snookered.

5. To become or cause to become inebriated. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• billiards
• pool

Borrowed from English snooker.

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• Hyphenation: snoo‧ker
• Rhymes: -ukər

snooker m (plural snookers, diminutive snookertje n)

1. snooker

• snuukkeri (colloquial)

Unadapted borrowing from English snooker.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsnuːker/, [ˈs̠nuːk̟e̞r]
• IPA^(key): /ˈsnuːkːer/, [ˈs̠nuːkːe̞r]
• Rhymes: -uːker

snooker

1. snooker

• “snooker”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

Borrowed from English snooker.

• IPA^(key): /snu.kœʁ/

• Audio:

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snooker m (plural snookers)

1. snooker

Unadapted borrowing from English snooker.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsnu.kɛr/
• Rhymes: -ukɛr
• Syllabification: snoo‧ker

snooker m inan

1. snooker (cue sport)

• snooker in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• snooker in Polish dictionaries at PWN