half-butt Billiards.
A cue intermediate in length between the ordinary cue and the long butt, used to reach a ball beyond the distance for which the ordinary cue is available. (Like the long butt it is made with a piece of heavy wood at the butt-end, to balance the weight of the longer end, which is of light wood.)
| 1896 Badminton Libr., Billiards 97 Half-butts and long-butts, on account of their length, have to be made of pine for lightness' sake..They are cumbrous things, and a disagreeable necessity. Ibid. 115 [To be] obliged to use the rest, and, worse still, the half-butt and long-butt, is at any time a drawback. |