Eight-ball
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A pocket billiards (pool) game played with sixteen balls (a cue ball and fifteen object balls) on a pool table with six pockets. uncountable
- 2 The billiard ball, almost always black, bearing the number eight. countable
- 3 A portion of cocaine or methamphetamine weighing ¹⁄₈ of an ounce, or 3.5 grams. countable, slang
"(a policeman confiding to a friend) ".. She had welts and bruises all over. So, one night we get called out there again, and I slip down their hallway and stuff two eight balls in his closet. Turns out he was on parole. He goes back to jail, she's safe, and I slept like a baby.""
- 4 A black person. countable, ethnic, slang, slur
"When a white fellow gets in the ring with an eight ball the eight ball's got no chance. You see, 'cause they call boxing the sweet science. And that's where your colored just runs into trouble. That's just that science part. Yeah, but Joe Louis is a big 'un."
- 5 A spherical attitude indicator. countable, slang
"The angle-of-attack error indicator, located to the right of the attitude "eight-ball," requires some explanation."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A kind of spherical microphone. countable
- 1 To outplay (an opponent) by potting all one's color balls and then the black (or eight-ball) without the opponent potting a single one. transitive
"She whips me in the first game of pool, I do not even get a shot. Eight-balled from the break. “Have you been practising?” I ask my sister. “Some,” she says, “play again?” “One more.” My sister beats me at pool in public a second time. I claim some dignity back by potting two of my balls before Tammy sinks the black."
Example
More examples"(a policeman confiding to a friend) ".. She had welts and bruises all over. So, one night we get called out there again, and I slip down their hallway and stuff two eight balls in his closet. Turns out he was on parole. He goes back to jail, she's safe, and I slept like a baby.""
Etymology
From eight + ball.
Related phrases
More for "eight-ball"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.