An abbreviation of CARAMBOLE, applied to the stroke so called in Billiards; now corrupted to CANNON sb.1 7.
A. sb.
1779. C. Jones, Hoyle’s Games Impr., 260. Which stroke is called a Carambole, or for shortness, a Carrom.
1826. Hoyle Impr., 396. A carombole or carom.
1850. Bohn, Handbk. Games, 519. A canon (formerly carom or carombole).
1872. ‘Mark Twain,’ Innoc. Abr., xii. 84. We accomplished very little in the way of caroms.
B. vb. (transf. in quots.)
1860. O. W. Holmes, Prof. Breakf.-t., 88. She glanced from every human contact, and ‘caromed’ from one relation to another.
1883. W. H. Bishop, in Harper’s Mag., March, 494/2. A single stone was made to ‘carom.’
