Definition of Cross table

Used in snooker in reference to the position of the cue ball. It is above the object ball if it is off-straight on the baulk cushion side of the imaginary line for a straight pot (e.g. "he'll want to finish above the blue in order to go into the pink and reds"). It is also common to use the term high instead.

Also straight eight-ball. Same as bar pool. Not to be confused with the games of straight pool or straight rail.

Describing a ball that is safe because it is in close proximity to one or more other balls, and would need to be developed before it becomes pottable.

This is a type of shot that is executed by an object ball caroming off of another object ball in order to gain the pocket.

This is when you aim at one particular object ball that is not meant to go in the pocket, but is instead meant to contact another object ball which will continue the combination process or be pocketed.

This is to execute a shot where the cue ball is controlled perfectly and stops where you want it to exactly.

Toward the head of the table. This is the playing area on the table above the middle pockets. The idea in an up table game is that shots are more difficult and further from the pockets in one pocket pool.

The rules played in a particular venue not necessarily in comportment with official rules, or with common local bar pool custom.

To enter the loser bracket in a double elimination tournament, or otherwise slip in standing in other tournament formats (i.e., to lose a game/frame/round/match, but still remain in the competition).

When the cue ball is tucked behind the corner of a pocket, therefore not allowing a direct shot at the object ball.

Also shake bottle, pea bottle, pill bottle, kelly bottle, tally bottle. The bottle used in various games to hold numbered peas, it is employed to assign random spots to players in a roster (such as in a tournament), or to assign random balls to players of a game.

Either of the two shorter rails on a standard pool, billiards or snooker table. Contrast side rail/long rail.

To sink a ball into a pocket.

In snooker, a phrase used to describe a situation where the player has an easy pot and in general the balls are in a position to go on to make a sizeable break.

National Amateur Pool League.

This is a player who has the ability to make difficult shots in one pocket, because they are likely proficient at other pool games first.

Slang for the cue ball.

To disguise the level of one's ability to play in various ways such as using a lemonade stroke; intentionally missing shots; making an uneven game appear "close"; purposefully losing early, inconsequential games. Sandbagging is a form of hustling, and in handicapped leagues, considered a form of cheating. See also dump and on the lemonade.

A shot in which the cue ball is potted after caroming off another ball. In snooker and most pool games doing this would be a fault (foul), but the move will score points in many games in which hazards (as such) apply, such as English billiards, or in the final or game point in Cowboy pool. The term derives from this hazard costing the player points in early forms of billiards.

A shot, especially common in straight pool and in some variants of blackball (but not WEPF/EPA rules), in which a player intentionally commits a foul with the object in mind of either leaving the opponent with little chance of running out or simply to avoid shooting where no good shot is presented and to do anything else would give the opponent an advantage. It is often referred to in straight pool as a "back scratch."

Also treble. A British term for a type of bank shot in which the object ball is potted off two cushions, especially by sending it twice across the table and into a side pocket. Also called a two-cushion double.

To indicate where something is to be done. To "mark the pocket" means to indicate which pocket you intend to sink an object ball.

In the UK, one of the two pockets one either side of a pool, snooker or English billiards table halfway up the long rails.

Principally British: In snooker, if a player wins a match without the need for the final session to be played (for example, if a player wins a best-of-25-frames match split into three sessions - two sessions of eight frames and one of nine - by a margin of say, 13 frames to 3), then they are said to have won the match "with a session to spare".