pools

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pool1

▶noun

• 1 a small area of still water, typically one formed naturally.

  ■ a deep place in a river.

  ■ a swimming pool.

• 2 a small, shallow patch of liquid lying on a surface.

▶verb

• 1 form a pool.

• 2 (of blood) accumulate in parts of the venous system.

– origin OE pōl, of W. Gmc origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
pool2

▶noun

• 1 a shared supply of vehicles, people, or resources to be drawn on when needed.

  ■ a common fund into which all contributors pay and from which financial backing is provided.

  ■ the collective amount of players' stakes in gambling or sweepstakes.

  ■ (the pools or football pools) a form of gambling on the results of football matches, the winners receiving large sums accumulated from entry money.

• 2 an arrangement between competing parties to fix prices and share business in order to eliminate competition.

• 3 a group of contestants who compete against each other in a tournament for the right to advance to the next round.

• 4 a game played on a billiard table using two sets of seven balls together with one black ball and a white cue ball.

▶verb

• 1 put (money or other assets) into a common fund.

  ■ share for the benefit of all.

• 2 Austral. informal implicate or inform on.

– origin C17: from Fr. poule in the sense ‘stake, kitty’, assoc. with pool1.