Z
ZODIAC. This word has degenerated into Soda. It means the top card in the box.
TECHNICAL WORDS AND PHRASES,
USED BY
BILLIARD-PLAYERS.
ATTITUDE. The position in which the player stands while at the billiard-table, when about to strike the ball. The acquisition of a good attitude is a matter of first importance to the new beginner. It is almost impossible to lay down fixed rules in this particular, as the peculiarities of height and figure would render the rules that would be excellent in one case, totally inapplicable in the other. Perfect ease is the grand desideratum; and this is to be acquired by practice, and a close observation of the best players.
BANK. When the player makes his own ball hit any of the cushions before striking the object-ball.
BILLIARD-SHARP. A class of character not tolerated in respectable saloons. As a general thing, the billiard-sharp is a retired marker, who fancies it is no longer respectable to work for an honest living, but that he is smart enough, and has learned tricks enough at his former business, to enable him to win as much money as he wants from the less experienced amateurs of the game, who figure in his vocabulary as "the flats." He generally frequents those establishments where one or two billiard-tables are made the stall behind which some dishonest occupation is carried on; and here he is at home, and in his glory. He makes himself particularly friendly with any one who will ask him to "take a drink," and in his assumed duties he fills the offices of lounger, runner, talker, player, sponge, shoulder-hitter, and referee.
He is also a runner, and sort of travelling blower to second-rate manufacturers of billiard-tables. These men supply him with clothes, to enable him to mingle in respectable society, and allow him an enormous per centage for every billiard-table sold to a stranger through his agency. In addition to this, it is his business to pull down the reputation of such manufacturers as despise and scorn the means by which he earns his dishonest livelihood. As soon as he has made "a hit" in one saloon, he is off to another, and in this way goes the rounds of the city until all the places which harbor him, are, in his own phrase, "played out."
Such a man is to be avoided as one of the worst species of sharpers. He has a thousand pretenses under which to borrow money, and will act as if quite offended if refused. The stranger should avoid all such men, and especially any one with whom he is not well acquainted, who should ask him to play for any given sum, "just to give an interest to the game."
BOWERY SHOT. When the balls played with and at, are jarred together—a pushing shot.
BREAK. The position the balls are left in after the shot.
BURST. A term chiefly used at pin-pool, when a player has exceeded the number which is placed as the common limit to the game, and must, therefore, either retire from the game, or take a privilege of another life.
CAROM. (French, Carombolage.) To hit more than one of the balls on the table with your own. In England this word has been corrupted to "cannon."
COUNT. Is the reckoning of the game. Making a count, is to make a stroke which will add some figures to the player's reckoning.
DISCOUNT. When one player is so much the superior of another, that he allows all the counts made by his opponent to be deducted from his own reckoning, he is said to "discount" his adversary's gains. In "double" and "treble discounts," twice and thrice the amount of his opponent's gains are deducted from the player's score. In no other game but billiards are such immense odds possible. A man of close observation, temperate habits, steady nerves, and large experience, may give almost any odds to an inferior player, and still have a fair chance of success.
DOUBLET or CROSS. When the ball to be pocketed is first made to rebound from the opposite cushion.
FOLLOW. When a player's ball rolls on after another ball which it has impelled forward.
FORCE. When the player's ball retrogrades after coming in contact with another.
FOUL STROKE or SHOT. Any stroke made in violation of the known rules of the game.
FULL BALL, QUARTER BALL, HALF BALL, FINE or CUT BALL, OWN or CUE BALL, and OBJECT BALL. The "object ball" is the ball aimed at; the "own or cue ball" is the ball directed toward the "object ball;" the other terms relate to the position in which the object ball is struck.
GERMANTOWNER. See Bowery Shot.
HAZARD. To drive any of the balls into any of the pockets.
HAZARD, DOUBLE. When two balls are pocketed with the same stroke.
HAZARD, LOSING. When the player's ball is pocketed by his own act.
HAZARD, TAKING A. A term used to express that a player is so confident of making a certain hazard, that he will undertake to do it, under penalty of losing, in case he does not succeed, as many lives as he would have gained if successful. The phrase is most frequently employed in two-ball pool.
HAZARD, WINNING. When the player pockets either of the red balls, or his adversary's ball.
HUG. When any of the balls run close alongside of a particular cushion, they are said to hug it.
JAW. When a ball is prevented from dropping into a pocket by the cushions, which extend like jaws on either side.
JUMP. When the player forces his ball by a downward stroke to leap up from the table.
KILLED or DEAD BALL. When a ball in pool has lost its lives, and its chances are not renewed by privileges, it is said to be killed.
KISS. When the ball played with strikes another ball more than once, they are said to kiss; or when two balls, not played with, come in contact.
LONE GAME. A game in which one of the parties is an experienced player, and the other a novice—the former having the game in his own hands.
MISS. To fail striking any of the balls upon the table.
MISS-CUE. When the cue, from any cause, slips off the ball without accomplishing the intended stroke.
PLAYING FOR SAFETY. When the player foregoes a possible advantage, in order to leave the balls in such a position that his opponent can make nothing out of them.
PLAYING SPOT-BALL. When the player is not limited to the number of times he may pocket the red ball from the spot.
PRIVILEGE. When a player loses the lives, or chances, which were given to his ball on its entry into the game, and desires to purchase another chance from the other players, he asks a "privilege."
SCRATCH. When a player wins a stroke or count by accident, without deserving it, he is said to have made a scratch.
STRINGING FOR THE LEAD. A preliminary arrangement, by which it is determined who shall have the choice of lead and balls.
TIMBER LICK. See Bowery Shot.
BROKERS'
TECHNICALITIES IN BRIEF.
A BULL is one who buys stocks on speculation, thinking they will rise, so that he can sell at a profit.
A BEAR is one who sells stocks on speculation, thinking they will fall, so that he can buy in for less money to fill his contracts.
A CORNER is when the bears can not buy or borrow the stock to deliver in fulfillment of their contracts.
A DEPOSIT is earnest-money, lodged in the hands of a third party, as a guaranty; "5 up," "10 up," etc., is the language expressive of a deposit.
OVERLOADED is when the bulls can not pay for the stocks they have purchased.
SHORT is when a person or party sells stocks when they have none, and expect to buy or borrow them in time to deliver.
LONG is when a person or party has a plentiful supply of stocks.
A FLYER is to buy some stock with a view to selling it in a few days, and either make or lose, as luck will have it.
A WASH is a pretended sale, by special agreement between the seller and buyer, for the purpose of getting a quotation reported.