Definitions

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

  • noun A collision followed by a rebound.
  • noun A shot in billiards in which the cue ball successively strikes two other balls.
  • noun A similar shot in a related game, such as pool.
  • intransitive verb To collide and rebound; glance.
  • intransitive verb To make a carom, as in billiards.
  • intransitive verb To cause to carom.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In billiards, the hitting of two or three balls in succession by the cue-ball from one stroke of the cue: in Great Britain sometimes called cannon. Also spelled carrom.
  • In billiards, to make a carom (which see).
  • To strike or collide against a thing and then rebound or glance off again; cannon: usually with on, and common in racing slang: as, Eclipse caromed on High-flyer and injured his chance of winning.
  • Also spelled carrom.

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

  • intransitive verb (Billiards) To make a carom.
  • noun (Billiards) A shot in which the ball struck with the cue comes in contact with two or more balls on the table; a hitting of two or more balls with the player's ball. In England it is called cannon.

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

  • noun cue sports A shot in which the ball struck with the cue comes in contact with two or more balls on the table; a hitting of two or more balls with the player's ball; in England it is called cannon.
  • noun An Indian game played on a board measuring one meter by one meter square. Players take turns flicking checker-like pieces into one of four goals on the corners of the table. This billiard-like game is played entirely with the fingers, and usually while sitting on the floor.
  • verb intransitive To make a carom.

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

  • verb rebound after hitting
  • noun a glancing rebound
  • verb make a carom
  • noun a shot in billiards in which the cue ball contacts one object ball and then the other

Etymologies

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

[Short for carambole, a stroke at billiards, from French, a billiard ball, from Spanish carambola, a stroke at billiards, perhaps from Portuguese, carambola; see carambola.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably corrupted from French carumboler, carambole being the red ball in billiards.

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Examples

Comments

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  • n. a collision followed by a rebound. "pinballs caroming off cushions." TC Boyle, Drop City

    March 3, 2008

  • "'How many people are in here, do you think?'

    'Sixty-eight, last time I counted.... They come in and out, though, so I canna be quite sure. And I didna count the weans,' he added, moving slightly to avoid collision as a trio of small boys caromed through the crowd and shot past us, giggling."

    —Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross (NY: Bantam Dell, 2001), 545

    January 21, 2010