pool

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /pul/
  • IPA^(key): [pʰuɫ], [pʰuəɫ]
• (UK) IPA^(key): /puːl/
• Rhymes: -uːl
• Homophone: Poole

From Middle English pool, pole, pol, from Old English pōl (“pool”), from Proto-Germanic *pōlaz (“pool, pond”), from Proto-Indo-European *bale- (“bog, marsh”). Cognate with Scots puil (“pool”), Saterland Frisian Pol (“pool”), West Frisian poel (“pool”), Dutch poel (“pool”), Low German Pohl, Pul (“pool”), German Pfuhl (“quagmire, mudhole”), Danish pøl (“puddle”), Swedish pöl (“puddle, pool”), Icelandic pollur (“puddle”), Lithuanian bala (“bog, marsh, swamp, pool”), Latvian bala (“a muddly, treeless depression”), Russian боло́то (bolóto, “swamp, bog, marsh”).

A pool (as one supplied by a spring or occurring in the course of a stream)

pool (plural pools)

1. A small and rather deep collection of (usually) fresh water, as one supplied by a spring, or occurring in the course of a stream; a reservoir for water.

   the pools of Solomon

   • 1612, Francis Bacon, "Essay VIII., Of Marriage and Single Life", Essayes: Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed:

     Charity will hardly water the ground where it must first fill a pool.

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Tempest

     The filthy mantled pool beyond your cell.

   • 1833, Alfred Tennyson, "The Miller's Daughter", Poems, Edward Moxon:

     The sleepy pool above the dam,

2. A small body of standing or stagnant water; a puddle.
3. Ellipsis of swimming pool.
4. A supply of resources.

   There is a limited pool of candidates from which to choose the new manager.

5. (by extension, computing) A set of resources that are kept ready to use.
6. A small amount of liquid on a surface, such as a pool of blood.

• paddling pool
• pool party
• swimming pool
• tidepool
• whirlpool

• Japanese: プール (pūru)

pool (third-person singular simple present pools, present participle pooling, simple past and past participle pooled)

1. (intransitive, of a liquid) to form a pool

French poule (“collective stakes in a game”) (The OED suggests that this may be a transferred use of poule (“hen”), which has been explained anecdotally as deriving from an old informal betting game in France - 'jeu de poule' - Game of Chicken (or Hen, literally) in which poule became synonymous with the combined money pot claimed by the winner)

pool (plural pools)

1. (games, uncountable) A game at billiards, in which each of the players stakes a certain sum, the winner taking the whole; also, in public billiard rooms, a game in which the loser pays the entrance fee for all who engage in the game
2. (sports) A cue sport played on a pool table. There are 15 balls, 7 of one colour, 7 of another, and the black ball (also called the 8 ball). A player must pocket all their own colour balls and then the black ball in order to win.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Book of Snobs Chapter 23

     He plays pool at the billiard-houses, and may be seen engaged at cards and dominoes of forenoons.

3. In rifle shooting, a contest in which each competitor pays a certain sum for every shot he makes, the net proceeds being divided among the winners.
4. Any gambling or commercial venture in which several persons join.
5. The stake played for in certain games of cards, billiards, etc.; an aggregated stake to which each player has contributed a share; also, the receptacle for the stakes.
6. A combination of persons contributing money to be used for the purpose of increasing or depressing the market price of stocks, grain, or other commodities; also, the aggregate of the sums so contributed.

   The pool took all the wheat offered below the limit.

   He put $10,000 into the pool.

7. (rail transport) A mutual arrangement between competing lines, by which the receipts of all are aggregated, and then distributed pro rata according to agreement.
8. (law) An aggregation of properties or rights, belonging to different people in a community, in a common fund, to be charged with common liabilities.

pool (third-person singular simple present pools, present participle pooling, simple past and past participle pooled)

1. (transitive) to put together; contribute to a common fund, on the basis of a mutual division of profits or losses; to make a common interest of

   We must pool our resources.

   • 27 February 2010, Barack Obama, Presidential Weekly Address - Time for Us to Act

     Many on both sides agreed that we should give small businesses and individuals the ability to participate in a new insurance marketplace – which members of Congress would also use – that would allow them to pool their purchasing power and get a better deal from insurance companies.

   • 1920, Frank L. Packard, The White Moll Chapter 4

     "She must be exceedingly clever to have beaten the police the way she has for the last few years; and—er—I worship at the shrine of cleverness—especially if it be a woman's. The idea struck me last night that if she and I should—er—pool our resources, we should not have to complain of the reward."
     "Oh, so youse wants to work wid her, eh?" sniffed Rhoda Gray. "So dat's it, is it?"

2. (intransitive) to combine or contribute with others, as for a commercial, speculative, or gambling transaction

• Loop, OOPL, Polo, loop, polo

From Latin polus, which itself is from Ancient Greek πόλος (pólos, “axis”). Cognate with English pole.

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: pool

pool c (plural polen, diminutive pooltje n)

1. magnetic pole (especially of the Earth and other celestial bodies)
2. electrical pole (e.g. of a battery)
3. (figuratively) an opposing side of a principle or a doctrine

• noordpool, Noordpool
• zuidpool, Zuidpool

From English pool.

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: pool

pool m (plural pools, diminutive pooltje n)

1. a gambling venture such as a football pool
2. the stake involved in such a venture
3. an arrangement where people pool in money to share one resource such as a carpool
4. (sports) pool

• banenpool
• arbeidspool

From Middle Dutch pool, from Old French poil, from Latin pilus (“hair”). Cognate with English pile

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: pool

pool c (plural polen, diminutive pooltje n)

1. the pile (upstanding usually fine hair) on certain fabrics, velvet or carpeting

• loop

From Proto-Finnic *pooli, from Proto-Uralic *pälä. Cognates include Finnish puoli (“half, side”), Mansi па̄л (pāl, “half, side”), Hungarian fél (“half”).

• IPA^(key): /pˈoːl/

pool (genitive poole, partitive poolt)

1. half
2. side

   tagumine pool

   back side

   koledam pool

   the ugly side

The nonstandard plural partitive poolesid is somewhat common in colloquial use.

pool

1. at, to, towards

   minu pool

   at my place

   põhja pool

   to the north, in the north

   igal pool

   everywhere

allative: poole

adessive: pool

ablative: poolt

• IPA^(key): /pˈoːlʲ/

pool (genitive pooli, partitive pooli)

1. bobbin, coil

• mähis

pool

1. half

pool m (plural pooles)

1. pool (sport)

Since 1968; from English pool, related to Swedish pöl, small water pool, usually on the road when it's raining.

• IPA^(key): /puːl/
• Homophone: pol
• Rhymes: -uːl

pool c

1. a swimming pool

• bubbelpool

• loop
• polo

pool m (plural pooles)

1. head