n [ U ]
a game for two, played on a large table with fifteen red balls and seven balls of different colours. The players use long sticks (called cues ) to hit the white ball across the table, trying to make it knock one of the other balls into any of six holes (called pockets ) round the edge of the table. Points are scored according to the colour of the ball that is hit into a pocket. A red ball, worth one point, must be hit into a pocket first, to allow the player who hit it to try a ball of higher value. It has been popular on British television since the 1970s.