| 释义 |
billiards, n. pl.|ˈbɪljədz|
Also 6–7 balliards, 7 billards, billiars, billyards. The sing. billiard is used only in comb. (see 2).
[a. F. billard, OF. also billart, the game; so named from billard ‘a cue,’ orig. ‘a stick with curved end, a hockey-stick,’ dim. of bille piece of wood, stick: see billet n.2 and -ard. In Eng. introduced only as the name of the game, and made pl. as in draughts, skittles, bowls, and other names of games.]
1. A game played with small solid ivory balls on a rectangular table having a smooth cloth-covered horizontal surface, the balls being driven about, according to the rules of the game, by means of long tapering sticks called cues.
1591Spenser M. Hubberd 803 With all the thriftles games that may be found..With dice, with cards, with balliards. 1598Florio, Trucco, a kinde of play with balles vpon a table, called billiards. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. v. 3 Let it alone, let's to billards. 1611Cotgr., Billiard, a short and thicke trunchion, or cudgell: hence..the sticke wherewith we touch the ball at billyards. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull (1755) 5 You sot, says she, you..spend your time at billiards, etc. 1873Bennett & Cavendish Billiards 2 Nothing is known about Billiards prior to the middle of the sixteenth century.
2. Comb. and attrib., as billiard-ball, billiard-club, billiard-cue, billiard-hall, billiard-player, billiard-playing, billiard-room, billiard-sharper, billiard-sharping, billiard-stick; billiard-cloth, fine green woollen cloth used for covering billiard-tables; billiard-mace, or † -mast, a rod furnished with a head or knob used to propel the ball in billiards; billiard-marker, a person who marks the ‘points’ made by each player, and keeps account of the progress of the game; also, a counting apparatus for registering results; so billiard-marking; billiard-table, the large table on which the game of billiards is played; usually 12 ft. by 6, covered with fine green cloth, surrounded by a cushioned ledge, and provided with six ‘pockets’ at the corners and sides for the reception of the balls; also used attrib. to describe a perfectly smooth green, road, etc.
a1637B. Jonson Celebr. Charis, And cheek..Smooth as is the *billiard-ball. 1871Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6) II. xv. 408 Not all the sense of pain or pleasure in the world could lift a stone or move a billiard-ball.
1873Winfield (Kansas) Courier 18 Jan. 3/2 The lower room will soon be occupied..as a saloon and *billiard hall. 1939Joyce Finnegans Wake (1964) 125 And uses noclass billiardhalls with an upandown ladder?
1775Sheridan Rivals ii. i, Seven..waiters, and thirteen *billiard-markers.
1785Cowper Task iv. 221 What was an hour-glass once Becomes a dice-box, and a *billiard-mast [1806 -mace] Well does the work of his destructive scythe.
1790T. Wilkinson Mem. IV. 228 This was of infinite service to Mr. Fleetwood as a *billiard player. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. I. ii. xviii. 321 The Vicar was a first-rate billiard-player.
1807J. R. Shaw Life (1930) 76 Men of diabolical principles..employed in..horse-racing, *billiard-playing, [etc.]. 1890W. James Princ. Psychol. I. xiii. 509 Billiard-playing, rifle-shooting, tight-rope-dancing, demand the most delicate appreciation of minute disparities of sensation.
c1702C. Fiennes Journeys (1947) iii. iv. 172 Out of the *billiard roome the first was with gravell walks and a large fountaine. 1814Jane Austen Mansf. Park I. xiii. 259 Maria, Julia, Henry Crawford, and Mr. Yates, were in the billiard room. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair viii, Tall doors with stags' heads over them, leading to the billiard-room and the library.
1865Pall Mall G. 11 Aug. 2/2 He meant to climb in the world to all that was pure and heroic by *billiard-sharping.
1588in N. & Q. (1915) XI. 227 Three *billyard stickes and one porte and ij balles of yvery. a1700Evelyn Diary 4 Dec. (1955) IV. 190 They for the most part use the sharp & small end of the billiard-stick, which is shod with brasse or silver. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. (1817) 52 When..the billiard-stick strikes the first or white ball.
1641in N. & Q. (1915) XI. 227 A *billiard table and three bearers. 1677Evelyn Mem. 10 Sept., The gallery is a pleasant, noble room: in the..middle, is a billiard-table. 1711Steele Spect. No. 54 ⁋4 Bowling-Greens, Billiard-Tables, and such like Places. [1851J. Pycroft Cricket Field vii. 107 We do not play cricket..on billiard tables.] 1867Baker Nile Tribut. viii. 190 An immense tract of high grass, as level as a *billiard-table. 1887F. Gale Game Cricket 183 Pougher..got seven wickets..for 116 runs, on a billiard-table ground. 1905Westm. Gaz. 6 June 4/2 A land of billiard-table roads. |