Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An often bright-green woolen or cotton material napped to imitate felt and used chiefly as a cover for gaming tables.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A coarse woolen stuff with a nap on one side, and dyed in plain colors, usually red or green.
  • noun Any article, as a table-cover, a curtain, etc., made of baize; specifically, in theaters, the plain curtain lowered at the end of a play.
  • To cover or line with baize.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A coarse woolen stuff with a long nap; -- usually dyed in plain colors.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A coarse woolen stuff with a long nap; -- usually dyed in plain colors.
  • noun A thick woolen cloth used for coverings on card tables etc. Note that the covering of billiard and snooker tables is often referred to as the Green Baize but is actually a fine woolen cloth and not baize.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a bright green fabric napped to resemble felt; used to cover gaming tables

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French baies, from pl. of bai, bay-colored, from Latin badius.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French baies, feminine plural of adjective bai ("bay-colored") mistaken as a singular noun.

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Examples

  • (* baize is the green felt fabric used to cover gaming tables)

    Mode d'Emploi 2004

  • (* baize is the green felt fabric used to cover gaming tables)

    un jeton - French Word-A-Day 2004

  • (* baize is the green felt fabric used to cover gaming tables)

    French Word-A-Day: 2004

  • (* baize is the green felt fabric used to cover gaming tables)

    French Word-A-Day: 2004

  • One of the players said baize, which is imitation felt, he said, and Keith more or less conceded this.

    Falling Man Don DeLillo 2007

  • There are people who look like artizans and who never drink anything but champagne, and walk to the tavern on red baize which is laid down from their hut to the tavern.

    Letters of Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 1882

  • With oil prices soaring and revolution in the air in North Africa and the Middle East, it's little wonder investors want to take a few chips off the green baize and cash them in.

    No Getting Away From It, Swiss Francs and Gold Are Still the Surest Havens David Cottle 2011

  • On the baize, the balls roll on, but the former stars who now commentate cannot resist blathering about the Jester from Leicester or the Wizard of Wishaw.

    In praise of ... 'Whispering' Ted Lowe | Editorial 2011

  • On the table, O'Sullivan's two-year wait for a ranking event title continued as he was beaten 6-5 in the second round by Judd Trump, but the Essex player, who turned 36 on Monday, was keen to discuss matters away from the baize.

    Ronnie O'Sullivan considers retirement after defeat to Judd Trump 2011

  • This is a modified billiards table, covered with green baize, as is normal, but oval rather than rectangular and without pockets — a feature of carambola, where players score points by "caroming" their cue ball off the opponent's cue and object balls on a single shot.

    Orozco Proves That Size Isn't Everything Paul Levy 2011

Comments

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  • Tod Moran and the green-baize table got me started on this journey (among some others)!! Howard Pease, thank you.

    March 12, 2008