[Of obscure origin.] A game, played with balls on a billiard table, combining pool and pyramids. Also snooker(’s) pool.
1889. Drayson, Pract. Billiards, 110. The game of snooker.
1896. W. Broadfoot, Billiards, xiii. 424. Snooker—or to give it its full title, Snooker’s Pool—is a hybrid game, half pool and half pyramids.
1905. Capt. A. I. R. Glasfurd, Rifle & Romance Ind. Jungle, 70. The old Doctor and we two, after several games of ‘Snookers,’ had passed into the ante-room.
Hence Snooker v. (See quots.)
1889. Drayson, Pract. Billiards, 111. If each pool ball is covered by a pyramid ball, the player is said to be ‘snookered.’
1896. W. Broadfoot, Billiards, xiii. 426. If the striker is by law obliged to play on a red ball or on a coloured ball, but … is unable to do so directly, he is said to be snookered.
