pool

• poole (obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /puːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /pul/, ,
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /pʉl/
• Rhymes: -uːl
• Homophones: Poole, pull (accents with FOOT-GOOSE merger or full-fool merger), pall (accents with fool-fall merger), Paul (accents with fool-fall merger)

From Middle English pool, pole, pol, from Old English pōl (“pool”), from Proto-West Germanic pōl, from Proto-Germanic *pōlaz (“pool, pond”), from Proto-Indo-European *bōlos (“bog, marsh”). Cognate with Scots puil (“pool”), Saterland Frisian Pol (“pool”), West Frisian poel (“pool”), Dutch poel (“pool”), German Low German Pohl, Pool, 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”).

pool (plural pools)

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

   the pools of Solomon

   the Pool of London

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 15, column 2:

     […] at laſt I left them
     I’ th’ filthy mantled poole beyond your Cell,
     There dancing vp to th’ chins, that the fowle Lake
     Ore-ſtunck their feet.

   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Marriage And Single Life. VIII.”, in The Essayes , 3rd edition, London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 37:

     A Single Life doth well with Church-men : For Charitie will hardly water the Ground, where it muſt firſt fill a Poole.

   • 1833, Alfred Tennyson, “The Miller's Daughter”, in Poems, 5th edition, Edward Moxon, published 1848, page 86:

     I loved the brimming wave that swam
     Thro’ quiet meadows round the mill,
     The sleepy pool above the dam,
     The pool beneath it never still,
     The meal-sacks on the whiten’d floor,
     The dark round of the dripping wheel,
     The very air about the door
     Made misty with the floating meal.

2. Any 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.

   dating pool

   • 1962 June, Rupert Shervington, “The planning and execution of the Kent Coast electrification”, in Modern Railways, page 390:

     The 4-BEP and 4-CEP stock is maintained in a common pool for both Chatham and South Eastern fast main-line services.

   • 2020 October 15, Alana Semuels, “Workers Who Were Laid Off Say They're Being Passed Over—For Their Own Jobs”, in Time‎:

     This is not necessarily surprising; employers often use recessions to pay new workers less because they have such a large pool of potential applicants to choose from, says Ruth Milkman, the Labor Studies Chair at the City University of New York’s School of Labor and Urban Studies.

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

   a pool of blood

7. A localized glow of light.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     He walked slowly, passing through one pool of light after another, his shadow running tall across the fronts of the barber shop, the Western Auto, the video-rental shop.

• → German: Pool
• → Japanese: プール (pūru)
• → Swedish: pool c

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.

1. From French poule (“collective stakes in a game”). The French word "poule" in this context is an abbreviation of "poulain, pouliche" (foal, filly), and referred to races with female horses under 3 years old. It then became used by punters to designate bets on that race, and started to be used from the racetrack to the stadiums.

2. 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.
3. (sports) A cue sport played on a pool table. There are 15 balls, 7 of one colour or solids, 7 of another color or stripes, 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, chapter 23, in The Book of Snobs:

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

4. 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.
5. (fencing) A group of fencers taking part in a competition.

   Synonym: poule

6. (rugby union) A set of teams playing each other in the same division, while not during the same period playing any teams that belong to other sets in the division.

   Synonym: group

7. Any gambling or commercial venture in which several persons join.
8. 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.
10. 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.

11. A set of players in quadrille etc.
12. (rail transport) A mutual arrangement between competing lines, by which the receipts of all are aggregated, and then distributed pro rata according to agreement.
13. (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.

   • 1920, Frank L. Packard, chapter 4, in The White Moll:

     “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?”

   • 2007 November, Elizabeth Drake, “Combine and conquer: Use these winning food pairings to protect your health”, in Men's Health, volume 22, number 9, →ISSN, page 124:

     It all started 6 years ago, as Rutgers University scientists Allan Conney, Ph.D., and George C. Wagner, Ph.D., chatted at an office get-together. […] From this conversation, the two decided to pool their knowledge and join forces.

   • 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.

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:

  (file)

• 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:

  (file)

• 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:

  (file)

• 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”), Northern Mansi па̄л (pāl, “half, side”), Hungarian fél (“half”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpoːl/,
• Hyphenation: pool
• Rhymes: -oːl

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

Borrowed from Middle Low German spōle, from Old Saxon spōla, from Proto-West Germanic , from Proto-Germanic *spōlǭ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpoːlʲ/,
• Hyphenation: pool
• Rhymes: -oːlʲ

pool (genitive pooli, partitive pooli)

1. bobbin, coil

• mähis

• “pool”, in Eesti etümoloogiasõnaraamat [Estonian Etymological Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2012

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

pool m (plural pools)

1. pool (sport)

• “pool”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈpoːl/,
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈpoːlʲ/,
• Rhymes: -oːl, -oːlʲ
• Hyphenation: pool

pool

1. Alternative form of pooli

• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 451

pool

1. large fire (which causes damage)

pool

1. fire

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

• (Luutsa, Liivtšülä) IPA^(key): /ˈpoːl/,
• Rhymes: -oːl
• Hyphenation: pool

pool

1. Alternative form of pooli

pool

1. half

• Hallap, V., Adler, E., Grünberg, S., Leppik, M. (2012) “pooli”, in Vadja keele sõnaraamat [A dictionary of the Votic language], 2nd edition, Tallinn

pool

1. head