Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - pool

(pools, pooling, pooled) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A pool is the same as a swimming pool. ...a heated indoor pool... During winter, many people swim and the pool is crowded. N-COUNT 2. A pool is a fairly small area of still water. The pool had dried up and was full of bracken and reeds. N-COUNT see also rock pool 3. A pool of liquid or light is a small area of it on the ground or on a surface. She was found lying in a pool of blood... The lamps on the side-tables threw warm pools of light on the polished wood. N-COUNT: N of n 4. A pool of people, money, or things is a quantity or number of them that is available for an organization or group to use. The new proposal would create a reserve pool of cash. N-COUNT: with supp, usu N of n see also car pool 5. If a group of people or organizations pool their money, knowledge, or equipment, they share it or put it together so that it can be used for a particular purpose. We pooled ideas and information... VERB: V n 6. Pool is a game played on a large table covered with a cloth. Players use a long stick called a cue to hit a white ball across the table so that it knocks coloured balls with numbers on them into six holes around the edge of the table. N-UNCOUNT 7. If you do the pools, you take part in a gambling competition in which people try to win money by guessing correctly the results of football matches. (BRIT) The odds of winning the pools are about one in 20 million. = football pools N-PLURAL: the N