▪ I. pool, n.1
(puːl)
Forms: 1–4 pól, (1 poll, 4 powl), 5–6 pole, 5–7 poole, 3, 5– pool. Also β. Sc. 5 poll, 5– pule, 6– puil, 8–9 (n.e. dial.) peel.
[OE. pól masc. = OLG. *pôl, MLG., MD. pōl, LG. pōl, pohl, pūl, Du. poel; WGer. stem *pôlo-.
OE. had also pull and pyll (see pill n.3), ON. pollr, Sw., Da. pól, the relations of which to OE. pól are obscure, as are also those of the Celtic words: W. pwll, Corn. pol, Breton poull pool; Ir. poll, pull, Gael. poll hole, bog, pond, pit, mire, Manx poyll pool, puddle.]
1. a. A small body of standing or still water, permanent or temporary: chiefly, one of natural formation.
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. C. xxxviii. 278 Salomon sæde ðætte swiðe deop pol wære ᵹewered on ðæs wisan monnes mode. Ibid. xxxix. 282 Swelce mon deopne pol [Hatton MS. pool] ᵹeweriᵹe. c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. John ix. 11 Gaa to ðæm pole [Siloam] & aðuah. c 1205 Lay. 21748 Þer, if æluene ploȝe in atteliche pole. c 1275 XI Pains of Hell 81 in O.E. Misc. 149 Ifulled is þat fule pool Þat euer is hot, and neuer cool. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2773 Let delue vnder þe foundement, & me ssal bineþe finde A water pol. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. C. 310 Alle þe gotez of þy guteres [text guferes], & groundelez powlez. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 653/3 Hec piscina, pole. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 407/2 Pool, or ponde for fysche kepynge, vivarium, stagnum. 1482 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 202/1 Ryvers, Pooles [204/2 Poles], Milnes, Fisshing places. 1535 Coverdale 2 Sam. ii. 13 They met together by the pole [1611 poole] at Gibeon, and these laye on the one syde of the pole, the other on the other syde. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 7 Poles, stankes, and standeng Lochis. a 1618 Sylvester Hymn of Alms 135 His Fens with Fowl, his Pils and Poles with Fish; His Trees with Fruits, with Plenty every Dish. 1622 Callis Stat. Sewers (1647) 59 A Pool is a meer standing water, without any current at all, and hath seldom or never any issue to convey away the waters. 1770 Goldsm. Des. Vill. 119 The noisy geese that gabbled o'er the pool. 1846 Ruskin Mod. Paint. I. ii. v. i. §4 There is hardly a road-side pond or pool which has not as much landscape in it as above it. |
| β 1487 Barbour's Bruce xii. 395 In the kersse pollis [MS. E. pulis, ed. Hart puilles] ther war. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 342 Thou come, Fule! in Marche or Februere, Thair till a pule, and drank the paddok rod. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 185 Stinkand pulis of euerie rottin sink. 1789 Ross Helenore 58 She..made nae stop for scrabs, or stanes, or peels [ed. 1768 pools]. a 1828 in P. Buchan Ballads I. 26 Then she became a duck..To puddle in a peel. |
† b. Applied to a whirlpool.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. ix. xxi. (1821) II. 108 Comparit justly to ane insaciabil pule. |
c. A small shallow collection of standing water or other liquid; a small plash, a puddle.
| 1843 Macaulay Lays Anc. Rome, Horatius lii, Where, wallowing in a pool of blood, The bravest Tuscans lay. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. xvii. 317 One of the little pools upon the surface of the glacier. 1867 H. Macmillan Bible Teach. xv. (1870) 291 Those little pools that are left behind among the rocks by the retiring tide. Mod. Sc. Keip oot o' the puils. |
d. transf. and
fig.| 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1352/2, [I] was forced to open the poole of my head, and to unstop the gate of my heart. 1870 Mrs. J. H. Riddell Austin Friars i, A quiet pool apart from the human torrent. 1875 G. Macdonald Parables, Somnium Mystici x, On the floor I saw..A little pool of sunlight. 1894 S. Weyman My Lady Rotha xxxi, The very gules and purpure that lay in pools on the floor. 1903 Smart Set IX. 114 Hid in the marsh of years, Lies the still pool of memory. |
e. (See
quot.)
| 1883 Century Mag. July 324/1 When once a new ‘pool’ or belt of [oil-] producing territory is found. |
f. = oil pool s.v. oil n.1 6 e.
| 1902 Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey No. 198. 23 North and northeast of the Snyder pool six wells have been sunk. 1976 M. Machlin Pipeline ii. 32 It tests over two thousand barrels a day—and God knows how much gas. I don't know how big the pool is. |
g. A swimming pool.
| 1921 A. Huxley Crome Yellow iv. 33 That part of the garden that sloped down from the foot of the terrace to the pool. 1941 B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? iv. 61 Collier was urging him to come early and try the pool. 1961 J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 337 It is recommended that pools for championship meets should be at least 75 feet in length and 42 feet in width. 1974 R. Thomas Porkchoppers v. 38 He.. lived..in a a house with a pool, two Russian wolfhounds, and his wife. |
2. A deep and still place in a river or stream.
the Pool: (
a) the part of the Thames between London Bridge and Cuckold's Point; (
b) Liverpool.
| a 1000 in Birch Cart. Sax. I. 57 Of þane grete wiþ iᵹ endlonge burne in þane pol buue Crocford. 1632 Massinger City Madam i. i, The ship is safe in the Pool, then? 1661 Walton Angler i. xx. (ed. 3) 241 Such Pools as be large and have most gravel. 1722 De Foe Plague (1840) 111 The river..between the houses which we call Ratcliff and Redriff, which they name the pool. 1806 Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2) 272 After passing the linn, it [R. Isla] forms a deep pool of water, called Corral. 1812 J. Wilson Isle of Palms ii. 171 A stream comes dancing from a mount... Then, tamed into a quiet pool Is scarcely seen to glide. 1885 Law Rep. 10 Appeal Cases 380 It is not a very big burn, but there are some very deep pools in it. 1963 Austral. T.V. Times 18 Apr. 10/2 The pool, the port of Liverpool. 1966 D. Francis Flying Finish (1968) i. 11 A small..wharf down in the Pool. 1969 R. Busby Robbery Blue xxii. 151 I'd reckon on Liverpool... I'd head for the 'Pool, get myself swallowed up in a big city. 1972 P. Driscoll Wilby Conspiracy (1973) ii. 29 His origins: a street of back-to-backs..off the Scotland Road..the toughest part of the Pool to grow up in. 1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Jan. 100/1 (Advt.), A fifteen year old tearaway from the 'pool brilliantly portrayed in a talented first novel. 1976 Observer 8 Aug. 11 (Advt.), Ar Alf sez darrevry Scouse Big'ead's brood special fer d'Pool, like. 1978 K. Bonfiglioli All Tea in China ix. 88 We could drop down-river to the Pool..without feeing a pilot. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
pool-bird,
pool-ground,
pool-side;
pool-clear,
pool-haunting adjs.;
pool cathode Electronics, a cathode consisting of a pool of mercury used in certain types of discharge tube;
pool house,
poolhouse chiefly
U.S., (
a) a house by a swimming pool, for the use of bathers; (
b) a building with a swimming pool in it;
pool-lily, a water-lily;
pool-measure,
pool-price, the measure or price of coal at the Pool on the river in London;
pool party, a party at which the guests bathe;
pool-pass, a fish-way into or out of a pool (
pass n.1 3 h);
pool-reed (called also
pole-reed and
pull-reed), the common Reed (
Phragmites communis);
pool room, a room with a pool in it;
pool-root, White Snakeroot,
Eupatorium ageratoides (Billings
Med. Dict. 1890);
pool-rush (called by Lyte
pole-rush), the Bulrush,
Scirpus lacustris; sometimes erroneously,
Typha latifolia;
pool-snipe,
† -snite, the Redshank,
Totanus calidris;
pool-spear = pool-reed;
poolwort, a name given in
U.S. to
Eupatorium aromaticum (Billings).
| 1591 Fraunce Heliodorus' æthiopia, Fit neast for a *poole-byrde. |
| 1934 Electrical Engineering (N.Y.) Jan. 75/2 If a rectifier having a single anode and mercury *pool cathode within a separate small tank were to be built, no continuous back current could flow to the anode when it is negative. 1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. VIII. 236/2 Tubes with a pool cathode have a higher current capacity and longer life than the hot-cathode tubes because of the indestructible nature of the mercury-pool cathode. Pool-cathode mercury-arc tubes are widely used for medium and high-power applications in welding and rectifier service. |
| 1924 E. Sitwell Sleeping Beauty xiv. 51 Pierced through the *pool-clear heart. |
| 1847 Emerson Poems, Monadnoc, Pasture of *pool-haunting herds. |
| 1957 P. Quentin Suspicious Circumstances ii. 24 He was way off, down by the pool... They'd eaten at the *poolhouse. 1975 A. Bergman Hollywood & the Vine (1976) ix. 123 The poolhouse had showers, marked ‘Fillies’ and ‘Stallions’. 1978 R. Moore Big Paddle (1979) xxix. 269 ‘Seems to me I remember a pool house around here somewhere.’ ‘You're planning on taking a swim, sir?’ |
| 1902 Contemp. Rev. Oct. 576 Her heart sank like a *pool-lily at shadow. |
| 1768 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 74/2 An action brought..against two coal merchants..for selling five chaldrons of coals for *pool-measure, without delivering the full quantity. |
| 1973 Ottawa Jrnl. 16 July 27/5 Arch, if Veronica's having a *pool party, why don't I wear a bathing suit? |
| 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 125 Plan and Section of Fish Pass..example of a *Pool Pass. |
| 1832 Examiner 23/1 Upon each chaldron of coals brought to the market twelve shillings..was added to the *pool or market price, which addition furnished the profits to the merchant. |
| 1587 T. Newton Lemnie's Bible Herbal 150 Another kinde of Reede there is growing by the banks of standing waters, and on the shores of riuers, which hath a long, round and hollowe stalke or strawe, full of knottie ioints..This kinde, is our common *Poole Reede, Spear or Cane reede. 1879 Prior Names Brit. Plants (ed. 3) 187 Pole-reed, properly..called in our western counties, Pool-reed, from its place of growth, Arundo Phragmites. |
| 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby (1926) v. 110 Through dressing-rooms and poolrooms, and bathrooms with sunken baths. 1968 J. Sangster Touchfeather xiv. 151 Where's the pool room? |
| 1712 M. Henry Life P. Henry i. Wks. 1853 II. 608/2 If we lay our children by the *pool-side, who knows but the Blessed Spirit may help them in, and heal them. 1921 W. de la Mare Veil 6 Wan glow-worms greened the pool-side grass. 1963 New Yorker 22 June 109 Poolside buffet luncheon daily. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 31 Sitting by the poolside at the Trinidad Hilton. 1970 P. Zelver Honey Bunch (1971) vii. 34 Trays of hot hors d'œuvres..which she brought to the poolside. 1973 H. Nielsen Severed Key iv. 39 Zachariah O'Hara..sat at a poolside table. |
| 1892 Jean A. Owen Within an hour of London Town (ed. 2) 256 The redshank, *pool-snipe, teuke or took..; all these names are given to him. |
| 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 182 *Poole-snite... They have a strong and unpleasant rellish, and live wholly upon fish. |
▪ II. pool, n.2 local.
[Origin unascertained.] A measure of work in roofing and flooring: see
quots.| 1669 S. Colepress in Phil. Trans. IV. 1010 Charges of Covering Houses with Slate... Every Poole of work is either 6 foot broad and 14 foot up, on both sides, or 168 foot in length and one in breadth. 1847–78 in Halliwell. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v., In building, it is usual to speak of ‘a pool of joists’; meaning the number of joists sufficient for the space between the wall and a beam or girder, or between two beams... The word only applies where main beams or short joists between dwarf walls are used... Also used for a similar space on a roof, which is covered by a ‘pool o' rafters’. |
▪ III. pool, n.3 [= F. poule in same sense (1676 in Mme. de Sévigné): see Note below.] 1. a. In certain card games, etc.: The collective amount of the stakes and fines of the players joining in the game.
[If, as appears to be the fact, sense 2 was derived from 1, this must have been in use before 1693.]
| 1711–12 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 26 Jan., I played at cards this evening at Lady Masham's, but I only played for her while she was waiting; and I won her a pool. 17.. Reversis, So that the great quinola pool will consist of 26 fish, and the little quinola pool of 13 fish. Each time that the stakes are drawn, or when there are fewer fish in the pool than the first original stake, the pool must be replenished as at first. 1766 [C. Anstey] Bath Guide viii 90 Industrious Creatures that make it a Rule To secure half the Fish, while they manage the Pool. 1772 Town & Country Mag. 29 Miss D―n..was hopping away with the pool from the Coterie. 1776 Mrs. Harris in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury (1870) I. 341 The ton here is the game of ‘Commerce’, which the fine people play immoderately high, sometimes 1000l. the pool, the lowest hand giving ten guineas each deal. 1887 Black S. Zembra 215 They continued the game..with the addition of a half-a-crown pool to increase the attraction. |
b. The receptacle containing the stakes; the pool-dish. (Quot. 1886 appears to be an error.)
| 1770 Streets & Inhabitants of Birmingham 87 Enamel Manufacturers. These ingenious Artists make Candlesticks, Snuff Boxes, Ink Stands,..Quadrille Pooles, Smelling Bottles..and all sort of small Trinkets for Ladies Watches, etc. 1816 Singer Hist. Cards 262 (Gleek) If an odd number is given the eldest hand claims the largest half, or else the odd one is given to the pool [1680 Cotton Gamester 65, 1734 Seymour Compl. Gamester 26, or else it is given to the box]. [1886 F. G. S. in N. & Q. 7th Ser. I. 477/2 Quadrille pools are the fishes or other counters used in playing the old-fashioned game of quadrille.] |
† 2. A party in a card-game, as comet or quadrille, in which there is a pool; a ‘game’ or match.
to make (up) a pool, to form or make up the party or requisite number of players for such a game.
Obs.| 1693 Southerne Maid's last Prayer iii. iii, What say you to a Pooile at Comet, At my House? 1732 Mrs. Delany Autobiogr. & Corr. (1861) I. 346, I played two pools at commerce. 1796 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. xiv, She..had sent for him only the Saturday before, to make up her pool of quadrille in the evening. 1801 Sporting Mag. XVIII. 21 Our party was put off till the Monday, when we played six pools. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. ix, I daresay the resolute lady sat down with her female friends to a pool of cards and a dish of coffee. |
3. a. A game played on a billiard-table, in which each player has a ball of distinctive colour with which he tries to pocket the balls of the other players in a certain order, each player contributing an agreed sum, the whole of which at the end falls to the winner; also, a similar game in
U.S. played with balls numbered 1 to 15, the number of each ball a player pockets being added to his score.
to shoot pool: see
shoot v.
| 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxiii, He plays pool at the billiard-houses, and may be seen engaged at cards and dominoes of forenoons. 1851 Fitzgerald Euphranor (1904) 26 He was waiting till some men had finished a pool of billiards upstairs. 1873 Bennett & ‘Cavendish’ Billiards 5 ‘French billiards’ was essentially single pool. 1887 M. E. Braddon Like & Unlike x, They played billiards, pool, or pyramids with skill and success. |
b. Colloq. phr. to play etc. dirty pool: to use unfair tactics; to be dishonest.
N. Amer.| 1951 H. Wouk Caine Mutiny xxxvii. 445, I played pretty dirty pool, you know, in court. 1973 Maclean's Mag. Feb. 85/2 ‘You use as much dirty pool as possible,’ says an alumnus cheerfully. 1976 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 Mar. 326/4 It is, of course, a combination of petty carping and dirty pool to demand of the author of a scholarly work information that does not fall within the limits he has meticulously drawn up for his work. |
4. a. Rifle-shooting. A contest in which each competitor pays a certain sum for every shot he fires, the proceeds being divided among the winners. Also
attrib.| 1861 Sat. Rev. 20 July 57 The attractions of the review and the temptations of pool targets have filled up the void left by the slackness of contributions. 1862 Ibid. 5 July 7 The sort of pot-hunting known at Wimbledon and elsewhere as Pool, where the value of a bull's-eye is much more considered than the credit of handling with success the Queen of weapons. 1869 Daily News 6 July, Pool and other breech-loading firing is made continuous instead of intermittent. |
b. Betting. The collective stakes of a number of persons who each stake a sum of money on one of the competitors in some contest, the proceeds being divided among the backers of the winner. Also
auction pool, the total sum realized when the names of horses in a race, or likely winners in other contests, are sold by auction to those who wish to hold them;
to scoop the pool: see
scoop v.
1 5 a.
| 1868 N.Y. Herald 3 July 10/1 Let us take a glance at the pool stand before the races begin. 1874 ‘Mark Twain’ Sk. New & Old 310 No pools permitted on the run of the comet—no gambling of any kind. 1881 [see pari mutuel]. 1913 A. Bennett Regent ii. x. 311 The Lithuania was lagging... Every day, in the auction-pool on the ship's run, it was the holder of the lower field that pocketed the money. 1928 Daily Mail 7 Aug. 12/5 Stewards are stationed at different points to give weary travellers a welcome lift and prevent them from getting off the beaten track and missing the auction pool. 1949 Radio Times 15 July 6/1 Wilfred acts as auctioneer on board the ‘Queen Mary’ during the pool on the ship's daily run. 1955 Times 30 Aug. 5/1 Under the Act, the balance-sheets, to be deposited with the local authority, must show the aggregate total stakes in all pools,..or, at the option of the promoter, the percentage of the total stakes. 1973 Irish Times 2 Mar. 2/6 The unexpected victory of Game Sauce in the second division scuttled jackpot hunters and the pool of {pstlg}1,027 goes forward to Naas tomorrow. |
c. = football pool. Usu.
pl.| 1938 Mass-Observation: First Year's Work 1937–38 iv. 39 The Pools provide an outlet for personal frustration, ambition and faith. 1947 [see banker2 5]. 1948 M. Allingham More Work for Undertaker xiv. 174, I wouldn't have had this happen, not for a thirty-thousand win in the pools. 1957 London Mag. May 48 They see themselves being eaten alive by this ignorant creature, with his telly and his pools, swallowing up all culture. 1958 Listener 28 Aug. 308/1 He is telling us about the important things about the working class, how they feel about pools and pubs as well as about socialism, trade unionism, and religion. 1966 A. E. Lindop I start Counting xxi. 266 I'm saving up to buy her a big book on birds... We had a nuthatch last Friday, and you'd think she'd won the pools. 1974 A. Fowles Pastime iv. 39 He sat at the main desk doing his pools... He'd never won a sausage. 1979 Times 20 Dec. 15/6 Nearly 60 per cent of people in the country as a whole replied to the question, ‘How often do you do the pools?’ with ‘Never’. |
5. a. A common fund into or from which all gains or losses of the contributors are paid; hence, a combination of capitalists for united speculative operation in a stock or commodity; a combine.
| 1872 W. R. Travers in N. York Herald 25 Nov. 8/3, I find myself charged by Mr. Jay Gould..with being interested in a put or pool in Northwestern common with Mr. Drew,..and others. 1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 29 Jan. 4/4 Stamford rich men have formed a pool to pay the fines imposed upon them for fast driving. 1906 Blackw. Mag. Jan. 146/1 His little history of the fifty-million dollar pool in Union Pacific Preferred Stock showed that it was a ‘blind pool’, to run for five years. |
b. A common reservoir of commodities, resources, etc.
Cf. gene pool s.v. gene1 2.
| 1917 ‘Contact’ Airman's Outings 127 Before they join a squadron pilots fresh from their instruction in England gain experience on service machines belonging to the ‘pool’ at Saint Gregoire. 1940 Times (Weekly ed.) 7 June 15 A rice pool has been formed from August 1 through which all rice imported into Singapore must pass. The pool will be used as a means for turning over the emergency stocks of rice which the Government have now acquired. 1943 J. S. Huxley Evolutionary Ethics vi. 46 The more individuals there exist whose desirable potentialities are fully developed, the more health, vigour, knowledge, wisdom, happiness, beauty and the rest can go into the common pool, and the better that common pool will work. 1946 S. Spender European Witness i. 11 People like myself could draw on an alleged ‘pool’ of cars to take them on journeys. 1958 Observer 15 June 13/7 Each animal and plant population draws on a large pool of genes. 1963 Higher Educ.: Rep. Comm. under Ld. Robbins 1961–3 53 in Parl. Papers 1962–3 (Cmnd. 2154) XI. 639 The increase has been almost as great among the children of professional parents, where the pool of ability might have been thought more nearly exhausted. 1967 E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage i. 28 A useful ‘pool’ of ideas will soon be built up to be referred to when needed. |
c. A group of persons any one of whose abilities or services may be drawn upon or who share duties;
spec. typing pool,
typists', etc., pool: a number of typists in an organization, department, etc., among whom work is distributed. Hence, also, the office or building where such typists work.
| 1928 I. Curtis in Schools of England xvii. 333 The staff as a whole is organized as a ‘pool’ for various miscellaneous duties, such as examination work, the preparation of the tutorial courses. Ibid. 334 All the examination work which falls to the Education Board,..is carried out by the pool as part of the regular work. 1937 V. Bartlett This is my Life x. 150 The typists [of the League of Nations] were..relegated to a ‘pool’ at the top of the building. 1942 N. Balchin Darkness falls from Air vi. 104 How many people are there in your typing pool? 1944 ‘N. Shute’ Pastoral iv. 75 Chap with a face like a burglar—came in with the last lot from the pool. 1949 Manch. Guardian Weekly 20 Jan. 3 A secretarial ‘pool’. 1958 G. Greene Our Man in Havana 58 The secretaries' pool should have been informed. Ibid. v. vi. 260 I'll try to stay in the typists' pool. 1959 Times 3 Sept. 14/1 A married woman, aged 23, who has settled down in the audio-typing pool after only a few years as a secretary, confessed that she hated it at first but soon changed her mind. 1960 Guardian 11 July 3/3 The Derby force opens a new typing pool where the reports..will be typed. 1960 M. Spark Ballad of Peckham Rye iii. 42 That Miss Coverdale in the pool..is working Dixie to death. 1970 G. Greer Female Eunuch 126 She can command better money and have time off as well if she would only walk out of her typing pool. 1972 K. Benton Spy in Chancery iv. 32 Diana's a competent girl, and she doesn't chatter about her work to the typists' pool. |
d. = pool petrol.
| 1940 M. Nicholson How Britain's Resources are Mobilized 4 In war it [petrol] all goes round in grey tankers and is all called ‘Pool’. 1944 Amer. Speech XIX. 294 The word ‘pool’, printed on a strip of paper pasted on a gasoline pump, announces that the pump contains an unidentified brand of gasoline from the nation's pooled supplies, instead of the brand advertised on the pump. 1952 Economist 6 Sept. 581 Early in the war all petrol was of uniform quality, the Pool. |
e. In a sporting tournament, a group the members of which play against each other to decide which of the competitors or teams qualify for the next round; a minor league.
| 1955 Times 26 May 12/5 His many successes in the matches and ‘pools’ inaugurated at that time. 1972 Sunday Tel. 30 Apr. 34/7 The team flies to Groningen tomorrow, drawn in a tough pool with Poland, Spain and Hungary. |
f. A register of free-lance dockworkers seeking employment.
| 1958 Engineering 14 Mar. 329/2 Members of the National Dock Labour Board's ‘pool’ at the..group of docks decided to ban overtime in order to spread the work available among the registered workers. 1964 O. E. Middleton in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 194 The usual round and the same stale answers on every ship: ‘All hands are hired through the Pool. Are you established members of the Pool?’ 1972 Guardian 17 Aug. 1/4, 2,000 [dockers] are going to be put out in Liverpool, and there are 1,200 in the Royal Group on the ‘pool’ (the temporary, unattached register which is to be abolished under the new proposals). |
g. Biochem. A quantity of one or more metabolites in some definite part or tissue of the body which is continually being diminished and replenished by cellular activity.
| 1961 in Webster. 1962 Bacteriol. Rev. XXVI. 292/1 Bacteria maintain internally synthesized small molecules at high internal concentrations and in addition have the capacity to concentrate many compounds from the environment. Since the majority of these compounds are intermediates in synthesis, they are collectively termed the pool of metabolic intermediates or, simply, the ‘pool’. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 249/2 Fowle, Matthews and Campbell (1964)..put forward a model which separated the body CO2 into intracellular and extracellular pools. 1971 Nature 30 July 329/1 Thus shorter chain acids..would have been produced by partial degradation of palmitic acid, with concomitant dilution of label by the cellular pool of palmitic acid. |
h. A small number of reporters who have access to news sources and pass information to other journalists.
| 1967 R. J. Serling President's Plane is Missing (1968) vi. 102 Call a press conference and lay it on the line. They can choose themselves between a permanent pool or a one-shot visit. 1973 Washington Post 13 Jan. c 2/3 Instead of limiting coverage to a selected ‘pool’ of a few reporters, all accredited reporters and photographers—more than 100—were allowed to attend. |
6. An arrangement between previously competing parties, by which rates or prices are fixed, and business or receipts divided, in order to do away with mutually injurious competition: see
quot. 1882. Also
attrib. Originally
U.S.| 1881 Chicago Times 1 June, The marine insurance men are still striving to form a pool, and expect soon to succeed. Ibid. 4 June, The company will now compete with the other pool lines leading eastward. Ibid. 17 June, The agreement for a reorganization of the south-western freight pool. 1882 Bithell Counting Ho. Dict. (1893) 231 The object of a ‘pool’ is to put an end to the ‘war of rates’ which breaks out so frequently between two or more competing lines... Sometimes the proceeds of the traffic on competing lines are put into a common fund, and afterwards distributed according to conditions previously agreed on. This is called a ‘Financial Pool’. In other cases, arrangements are made for a distribution of the traffic, each line agreeing to accept a specified proportion. This is called a ‘Physical Pool’. 1887 Pall Mall G. 11 Oct. 12/1 Salt is the latest commodity placed under the control of a pool in the United States... The object of such a pool is ‘to keep up the price of salt, and to be able to compete with the foreign manufacturers’. |
7. Fencing. A contest between teams, in which each member of one side fights each member of the other.
| 1901 Oxford Times 9 Mar. 12/4 What is termed a Poule à l'epée was arranged between teams of six a side, each member of the one team fighting a duel with the six members of the other, in rotation. Ibid., Came out head of the pool, receiving only one hit in his six engagements. |
8. Comb., as (in sense 1)
pool-dish,
pool-game; (sense 3)
pool-ball,
pool hall,
pool joint,
pool parlour,
pool-shooter,
pool-shooting,
pool-table; (sense 4 b)
pool box,
pool-check,
pool-seller,
pool-selling,
pool-ticket; (sense 4 c)
pool-betting,
pool coupon,
pool promoter; (sense 5 b)
pool currency,
pool driver,
pool product,
pool service,
pool transport; (sense 5 c)
pool typist; (sense 5 f)
pool office; (sense 5 h)
pool group,
pool policy,
pool reporter,
pool representative: see also 4 a and 6.
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Pool-balls, ivory balls, 9 or 12 to the set, about 2 inches in diameter, for playing a kind of billiards. |
| 1955 T. H. Pear Eng. Social Differences xiii. 293 It is easy to understand why the popularity of all-in wrestling and speedway racing has not spread ‘upwards’, while that of *pool-betting has. 1957 Encycl. Brit. IX. 998/2 In Great Britain the Pool Betting act of 1954 set certain requirements for the conduct of pool betting, including the registration of operators and inspection and publication of financial details. |
| 1878 M. Long Life Mason Long vi. 102 The field won, and after the race I drew six hundred and twenty-five dollars from the *pool-box. 1902 A. D. McFaul Ike Glidden 171 The vehement cheers of those about the pool box seemed more deafening as the race progressed. |
| 1890 L. D'Oyle Notches 11, I walked up ter see wot the preacher had giv' him; boys, 'twas nothing but a brass *pool-check. |
| 1951 ‘M. Innes’ Operation Pax ii. iv. 63 A few brought *pool coupons from their pockets and studied them. |
| 1955 Times 15 Aug. 6/4 The first Brazilian auction of ‘*pool’ currency will be tendered for on Thursday, the statement continues, and the currency thereby made available,..will be available for the three participating countries. |
| 1878 H. H. Gibbs Ombre 19 The Dealer then setting the *pool-dish at his right hand, places in it five points. |
| 1973 A. Mann Tiara x. 91 Four or five are in the motor pool for the use of Vatican people on official journeys, but they would have *pool drivers. |
| 1865 Compl. Domino-Player 16 Domino *Pool Game..is played by fitting the same numbers together, as in all the games with dominoes, except the matadore. |
| 1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 26 Sept. 10/5 The patients spoke mostly in Arabic to an Arab journalist in a *pool group of reporters who were taken to the hospital by the Jordanian army. |
| 1928 Collier's 29 Dec. 43/2 He entered a *pool-hall speak-easy. 1944 J. S. Pennell Hist. Rome Hanks 63, I heard a young pool-hall lounger standing idly in Pawnee street refer to him as Old Man Beckham. 1951 [see joke book]. 1973 Black World May 77/1 Their penchant for open debate in the chop bars..reappears in our barber shops and pool halls. 1975 Listener 18 Dec. 834/3 An endless succession of dreary bars, pool-halls and discos. |
| 1930 H. Zink City Bosses in U.S. 137 Money paid by saloons, gambling and *pool joints, and houses of the underworld. |
| 1964 O. E. Middleton in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 194 Why do they think we are tramping fifteen miles of dockside, when the other way, you have only to show your papers at the *Pool office, and wait for a ship? |
| 1912 *Pool parlour [see cabaret1 2 b]. 1932 J. Dos Passos 1919 413 Izzy had gotten to loafing in poolparlours. |
| 1973 Washington Post 13 Jan. c 2/3 The new ‘*pool’ policies under which Washington Post reporter Dorothy McCardle was excluded from five previous social events involving President and Mrs. Nixon. |
| 1939 New Statesman 18 Nov. 740 The only mystery about the Petroleum Board (the wartime name for the powerful trade committee which fixes distributors' quotas and agrees prices) is that it is unable to get permission from the Government to charge what prices it likes for the imports of ‘*pool’ products. |
| 1940 Harrison & Madge War begins at Home x. 279 Despite all the efforts of *Pool-promoters, postal facilities were denied, and the vast Pool vested interests were closed down. |
| 1967 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 14 Mar. (1970) 496 There were John Gardner and Liz and I and a *pool reporter.. in the tiny room. 1972 Guardian 9 June 13/8 The pool reporter..is the duty man who attends the senator in his intimate and most insignificant moments. Clearly five hundred pressmen..cannot accompany the senator into a small shirt shop: the pool reporter is their eyes and ears. |
| 1974 Times 17 Apr. 14/7 The briefing was open to all Israel newspapers..but the Foreign Press Association was told it must choose one *pool representative. |
| 1887 Advance (Chicago) 13 Oct. 6/1 No less than 15 *poolsellers were in the grand stand. 1888 Outing May 118/1 John Hatfield is a bookmaker and pool⁓seller in St. Louis. 1892 Pall Mall G. 4 May 5/1 The New York police have steadfastly resisted the efforts of enterprizing ‘pool-sellers’ to make betting on horse racing as easy for women as for men. |
| 1869 J. H. Browne Great Metropolis 573 *Pool selling is managed in this way. 1872 Alabamian & Times (Tuscumbia, Alabama) 26 Sept. 4/2 Pool selling is lively and fine sport is anticipated. 1887 Daily Tel. 12 Mar. 5/1 Wagering, or, as it is called on the other side of the Atlantic, pool-selling. |
| 1964 B.E.A. Advance Timetable (Summer), Pool Services from London: Flights to Denmark, Norway and Sweden are in co⁓operation with S.A.S...to Prague with C.S.A. and to Warsaw with LOT. |
| 1961 John o' London's 2 Nov. 495/1 A professional *pool-shooter. 1974 Greenville (S. Carolina) News-Piedmont 20 Apr. 8/2 Rudolph Wanderone, known internationally as Minnesota Fats, king of the pool-shooting hustlers, was reported in serious condition Friday after undergoing emergency surgery. |
| 1868 *Pool stand [see sense 4 b above]. |
| 1860 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xxxiii, Tom's good eye and steady hand, and the practice he had had at the..*pool-table, gave him considerable advantage. |
| 1945 News Chron. 7 June 4/3 The bicycles which are being used in these country trips are needed to provide *pool transport for mine workers and farm labourers. |
| 1942 N. Balchin Darkness falls from Air ix. 121 Pearce rang up with a long tale of woe about being very short of *pool typists. 1979 G. Hammond Dead Game x. 140 McLure got one of the pool typists put onto it. |
b. Pl. (sense 4 c), as
pools coupon,
pools entry,
pools investor,
pools panel,
pools win,
pools winner.
| 1951 A. Baron Rosie Hogarth v. iv. 337 Children will be educated.., not just to be office boys and fill in the pools coupon. 1978 J. Galway Autobiogr. ii. 20 The set..became the whole focal point of his life every Saturday afternoon when it was time to check the football results for his pools coupon. |
| 1972 A. Draper Death Penalty i. 5 The copy coupon of his pools entry. |
| 1958 Pools investor [see banker2 5]. |
| 1976 Daily Record (Glasgow) 4 Dec. 30/2 And with the arctic weather spreading south, the Pools Panel have been put on active stand-by. |
| 1963 Times 14 Feb. 15/3 An innocent from academe, made footloose by a pools win, incautiously agrees to become guest dramatic critic to the Evening Gazette. 1977 J. Wainwright Pool of Tears 203 You know about the pools win. |
| 1960 I. Jefferies Dignity & Purity xii. 187, I suddenly felt almost like a pools winner. 1973 Guardian 1 Mar. 28/5 The biggest pools winner in history..came to London yesterday to receive his cheque for {pstlg}542,252—won from a {pstlg}1 stake. |
c. Special
Combs., as
pool butter, the butter of uniform quality available in Britain during the war of 1939–45;
pool car, (
a) a freight wagon shared by a number of hirers; (
b) a car available for the use of a number of drivers;
pool-drive v., to share vehicles and driving duties on a regular journey;
pool petrol, the unbranded petrol which was the only grade available in Britain during and just after the 1939–45 war;
pool room, (
a) room with billiard tables where pool can be played,
usu. for a fee; (
b) a room where a betting pool is held; a betting shop;
pool shark U.S. colloq., an expert pool player; one who makes money by winning at pool;
pool train Canada, a train run jointly by more than one railway company; also
pool passenger train.
| 1940 Pool butter [see pool petrol below]. |
| 1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 18 July 3/5 Victoria Baggage Company. Furniture Moved, Crated and Shipped. Pool Cars for Prairies and All Points East. 1967 Lebende Sprachen XII. 186/1 Pool car..= Sammelwagen. 1973 A. Mann Tiara xiii. 118 There are five pool cars. |
| 1974 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 18 Mar. s6/1 Most go back and forth from Oshawa—working at General Motors is a way of life. They pool-drive. |
| 1959 Kingston (Ontario) Whig-Standard 28 Sept. 1/5 His death was the fifth caused by the collision in which a CNR freight ripped open the side of a dining car on a pool passenger train being shunted in the yards. |
| 1940 Weekly Chron. (Newcastle) 23 Mar., The war has given us special meanings of a number of words already in use—pool (for pool-butter, -petrol etc.). 1949 Punch 28 Sept. p. iv, When the days of ‘Pool petrol only’ are over. 1968 B. Foster Changing Eng. Lang. iii. 123 Wartime conditions frequently give a new twist to an existing term, e.g. ‘austerity, pool (as in ‘pool petrol’, the unbranded petrol of wartime days), [etc.].’ |
| 1861 T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. II. iii. 51 He could go and smoke a cigar in the pool room. 1887 Chicago Advance 13 Oct. 6/1 The betting..is now mostly done in pool-rooms. 1892 Pall Mall G. 4 May 5/1 Only one or two of the women came out of the pool-room with more money than when they entered it. 1931 D. Runyon in Collier's 26 Sept. 57/2 We get the race results by phone off a pool room downtown as fast as they come off. 1944 Auden For Time Being (1945) 50 Back to the upland mill town..with its grope-movie and its pool-room lit by gas. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 74 The poolroom itself was down in the cellar. 1973 Black World June 79/1 This style..emanates from the urban street world of pimps, prostitutes, poolroom sharks. 1978 Detroit Free Press 5 Mar. b 1/1 My best friend Antoine..and I were hanging around O'Quinn's poolroom. |
| 1908 Busy Man's Mag. Mar. 128 The Pool Shark. Bide Dudley... Blue Book. 1944 W. Russell in Needle July 21/2 On the Gulf Coast they'd call him a pool shark and gambler. 1971 J. H. Gray Red Lights on Prairies i. 13 Sometimes they [sc. prostitutes] travelled from town to town with pool sharks. |
| 1965 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 10 Nov. 19/8 At one time the pool trains ran over the CNR to Brockville and then by CPR tracks to Ottawa... As at the end of October, the pool trains ceased to exist and the two railways went on their separate ways. |
[
Note. In
Eng. use this word has undoubtedly from the 18th c. been identified with
pool n.1: see
quots. 17.., 1766 in sense 1, with their references to the
fish in the
pool. But the French use of
poule for the same thing, with the fact that the French is found earlier, makes it almost certain that the term was taken from
Fr., and associated with the
Eng. word
pool. F.
poule is held to be a sense of
poule hen, chicken, being
perh. at first slang for ‘booty, spoil, plunder’. Mme. de Sévigné in a letter of 29 July 1676 uses
poule exactly in the sense of
Eng. pool; and in a letter of 30 June 1680 says ‘Si Denjean est de ce jeu, il prendra toutes les poules: c'est un aigle’, a play upon the sense ‘hen’. The
Dict. of the Académie,
ed. 1, 1694, and that of Furetière,
ed. 2, 1701, also explain
poule almost in the words in which it stands in the
Dict. Acad. ed. 7, 1878: ‘Poule se dit, à certains jeux, de la quantité d'argent ou de jetons qui résulte de la mise de chacun des joueurs et qui appartient à celui qui gagne le coup.
La poule est grosse. Mettre à la poule. Gagner la poule’. There is
perh. a similar relation between F.
fiche a fish at cards, and the
Eng. ‘fish’ in the ‘pool’.]
▪ IV. pool, v.1 (
puːl)
[f. pool n.1] 1. intr. Of land: To be or become marshy or full of pools. Of water: To form pools, to stand, stagnate. Also
transf. (Not recorded in 18th and 19th c.)
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 89 Ne poole [v.r. pulle; L. stagnet] hit not, but goodly playn elonge. 1626 Bacon Sylva §537 On the other side the Water must but Slide, and not stand or Poole. 1973 D. Andersen Ways Harsh & Wild iv. 107 Behind our cabin there was a meadow that gradually pooled with water. 1977 Rolling Stone 13 Jan. 38/3 An afternoon sun pools warmly on the hardwood floor in the rambling frame house. 1978 C. Tomlinson Shaft 20 The brook..entered the garden, pooling. |
2. trans. In quarrying granite: To sink or make (a hole) for the insertion of a wedge; hence
pool-hole, a hole made in this process. In coal-mining: To undermine (coal) so as to cause it to fall.
| 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §91 Holes or notches, cut (or, as they term it, pooled) in the surface of the stone. Ibid., These pool-holes are sunk with the point of a pick. 1816 J. A. Paris Guide Mounts Bay & Land's End ii. 45 The method of splitting it [granite] is by applying several wedges to holes cut or (pooled) in the surface of the stone. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 979 The first set [of workmen] curves or pools the coal along the whole line of walls, laying in or pooling at least 3 feet. 1863 N. Brit. Daily Mail 5 May, [He] was working at the face of the seam, undermining or pooling the coal so as to bring it down. |
3. intr. Of blood: to accumulate in parts of the venous system,
e.g. as a result of the forces produced by continuous acceleration.
| 1933 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. XXXVII. 398 Fig. 6 shows a sketch of a device which I suggest might serve to counteract the tendency of centrifugal force to make the blood leave the head and pool in the thin-walled abdominal vessels. 1945 [see anti-gravity]. 1962 [see G-suit, g-suit]. 1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics xii. 463 The blood..increases in weight to the point where the heart can no longer pump it, and it pools in the extremities of the body. 1973 Towler & Butler-Manuel Mod. Obstetr. xvii. 469 Here the blood ‘pools’ in the large muscles and is effectively lost to the circulation. |
▪ V. pool, v.2 (
puːl)
[f. pool n.3] 1. trans. To throw into a common stock or fund to be distributed according to agreement; to combine (capital or interests) for the common benefit;
spec. of competing railway companies, etc.: To share or divide (traffic or receipts). Also
transf.| 1879 Daily Chron. 30 Apr., A diminution in the volume of traffic passing over the line under the arrangements made with competing lines to ‘pool’, or, as in England would be said, to ‘divide’ the traffic carried. 1879 H. George Progr. & Pov. iii. iii. (1881) 166 It is this general averaging, or as we may say, ‘pooling’ of advantages, which necessarily takes place. 1884 Pall Mall G. 2 Aug. 5/1 The arrangement for ‘pooling’ the Continental traffic of the two companies to Folkestone. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 25 Sept. 1/3 The endowed funds of the Church ought to be pooled, equalised, and redistributed according to the work done. 1921 G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah p. lxxvii, What we should do, then, is to pool our legends and make a delightful stock of religious folk-lore on an honest basis for all mankind. 1926 Amer. Mercury Dec. 462/2 Sime countered by pooling his stories with the other fellow. 1927 E. Thompson These Men, thy Friends 245 Hart and Kenrick pooled friends. 1940 Hutchinson's Pict. Hist. War 14 Feb.–4 Sept. 68 Petrol was pooled, buildings were seized, children were sent to safety. 1955 Times 16 Aug. 9/3 The sterling, Deutschmarks, and guilders which the Brazilian exchange control authorities secure from the proceeds of Brazilian exports will be ‘pooled’, and when in future they are ‘auctioned’ importers who buy them will be free to use them for imports from any one of the three countries. 1978 S. Brill Teamsters vi. 220 In a rare display of cooperation,..the IRS and FBI agreed to pool their efforts. 1979 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics XXIV. i. 35 Unfortunately, Brown pooled the data, so that if any developmental trends were present, they were obscured in the analysis. |
2. Austral. slang. To implicate; involve a person against his will; inform on.
| 1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 39 Pool, to involve; cast blame or a burden on. 1928 A. Wright Good Recovery 117 Leave the sheilas alone; they're sure to pool a man sooner or later. 1932 W. Hatfield Ginger Murdoch 282 To rig that evidence against him—pool him. 1942 L. Mann Go-Getter 313, ‘I got pooled into it,’ he explained. 1967 K. Tennant Tell Morning This 85 A man thought he'd do the decent thing and tide a girl over a patch of trouble, and she pools him every time. You can't prove it isn't your kid. |
Hence
pooled ppl. a.;
ˈpooling vbl. n.| 1884 American VII. 229 A pooling combination to regulate prices. 1884 Pall Mall G. 30 Apr. 11/1, I don't think this pooling of the [railway] rates will stand. 1888 Ibid. 21 Jan. 2/2 Negotiations..with a view of extending the pooled area. 1892 Nation (N.Y.) 15 Dec. 446/1 The repeal of the section of the law prohibiting railway pooling. 1928 Manch. Guardian Weekly 10 Aug. 104/2 Washington, too, is shown by the dispatches to suspect something like an Anglo-French alliance or merger or pooling behind the text of the naval compromise. 1936 Discovery Aug. 232/1 It was to be hoped that such pooling of knowledge might become world-wide. 1943 J. S. Huxley Evolutionary Ethics 39 Part of the blind struggle for existence between separate individuals or groups is transposed into conflict in consciousness..within the tradition which is the vehicle of pooled social consciousness. Ibid. 45 The pooling of experience and co-operative action in a cumulative tradition. 1946 J. W. Day Harvest Adventure xvi. 278 As to the waste of ‘pooled’ machinery, this is a sore point in many counties. 1951 N.Y. Times 21 Aug. 1/6 A pooled dispatch said the services had ‘an almost carnival atmosphere’. 1955 Bull. Atomic Sci. Apr. 146/1 In science, only a pooling of all new ideas can lead to progress. 1967 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. V. 162 When animals are small, biochemical study of a pooled sample from many specimens is imperative. 1971 Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. LXXXV. 111 The baseline performance of the pooled controls. 1975 Language for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) iii. 40 It is an essential principle of the item pooling system that assessment can reflect changes in the use of language and stylistic differences over the years. |
▪ VI. pool dial. f. pull v.
▪ VII. pool, poole obs. ff.
pole,
poll.