1. [n]  any of various games played on a pool table having 6 pockets
2. [n]  an excavation that is (usually) filled with water
3. [n]  an association of companies for some definite purpose
4. [n]  an organization of people or resources that can be shared; "a car pool"; "a secretarial pool"; "when he was first hired he was assigned to the pool"
5. [n]  something resembling a pool of liquid; "he stood in a pool of light"; "his chair sat in a puddle of books and magazines"
6. [n]  a small lake; "the pond was too small for sailing"
7. [n]  a small body of standing water (rainwater) or other liquid; "there were puddles of muddy water in the road after the rain"; "the body lay in a pool of blood"
8. [n]  the combined stakes of the betters
9. [n]  any communal combination of funds; "everyone contributed to the pool"
10. [v]  combine into a common fund; "We pooled resources"
11. [v]  add together, as of resources

1. \Pool\, n. [AS. p[=o]l; akin to LG. pool, pohl, D. poel, G.
   pfuhl; cf. Icel. pollr, also W. pwll, Gael. poll.]
   1. A small and rather deep collection of (usually) fresh
      water, as one supplied by a spring, or occurring in the
      course of a stream; a reservoir for water; as, the pools
      of Solomon. --Wyclif.
            Charity will hardly water the ground where it must
            first fill a pool.                    --Bacon.
            The sleepy pool above the dam.        --Tennyson.
   2. A small body of standing or stagnant water; a puddle.
      ``The filthy mantled pool beyond your cell.'' --Shak.
   

2. \Pool\, n. [F. poule, properly, a hen. See {Pullet}.]
   [Written also {poule}.]
   1. The stake played for in certain games of cards, billiards,
      etc.; an aggregated stake to which each player has
      contributed a snare; also, the receptacle for the stakes.
   2. A game at billiards, in which each of the players stakes a
      certain sum, the winner taking the whole; also, in public
      billiard rooms, a game in which the loser pays the
      entrance fee for all who engage in the game; a game of
      skill in pocketing the balls on a pool table.
   Note: This game is played variously, but commonly with
         fifteen balls, besides one cue ball, the contest being
         to drive the most balls into the pockets.
               He plays pool at the billiard houses.
                                                  --Thackeray.
   3. In rifle shooting, a contest in which each competitor pays
      a certain sum for every shot he makes, the net proceeds
      being divided among the winners.
   4. Any gambling or commercial venture in which several
      persons join.
   5. A combination of persons contributing money to be used for
      the purpose of increasing or depressing the market price
      of stocks, grain, or other commodities; also, the
      aggregate of the sums so contributed; as, the pool took
      all the wheat offered below the limit; he put $10,000 into
      the pool.
   6. (Railroads) A mutual arrangement between competing lines,
      by which the receipts of all are aggregated, and then
      distributed pro rata according to agreement.
   7. (Law) An aggregation of properties or rights, belonging to
      different people in a community, in a common fund, to be
      charged with common liabilities.
   {Pin pool}, a variety of the game of billiards in which small
      wooden pins are set up to be knocked down by the balls.
   {Pool ball}, one of the colored ivory balls used in playing
      the game at billiards called pool.
   {Pool snipe} (Zo["o]l.), the European redshank. [Prov. Eng.]
   {Pool table}, a billiard table with pockets.
   

3. \Pool\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Pooled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Pooling}.]
   To put together; to contribute to a common fund, on the basis
   of a mutual division of profits or losses; to make a common
   interest of; as, the companies pooled their traffic.
         Finally, it favors the poolingof all issues. --U. S.
                                                  Grant.
   

4. \Pool\, v. i.
   To combine or contribute with others, as for a commercial,
   speculative, or gambling transaction.
   

Parallel Object-Oriented Language.

A series of languages from Philips Research Labs.

See POOL2, POOL-I, POOL-T.

a pond, or reservoir, for holding water (Heb. berekhah; modern Arabic, birket), an artificial cistern or tank. Mention is made of the pool of Gibeon (2 Sam. 2:13); the pool of Hebron (4:12); the upper pool at Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:17; 20:20); the pool of Samaria (1 Kings 22:38); the king's pool (Neh. 2:14); the pool of Siloah (Neh. 3:15; Eccles. 2:6); the fishpools of Heshbon (Cant. 7:4); the "lower pool," and the "old pool" (Isa. 22:9,11).

The "pool of Bethesda" (John 5:2,4, 7) and the "pool of Siloam" (John 9:7, 11) are also mentioned. Isaiah (35:7) says, "The parched ground shall become a pool." This is rendered in the Revised Version "glowing sand," etc. (marg., "the mirage," etc.). The Arabs call the mirage "serab," plainly the same as the Hebrew word _sarab_, here rendered "parched ground." "The mirage shall become a pool", i.e., the mock-lake of the burning desert shall become a real lake, "the pledge of refreshment and joy." The "pools" spoken of in Isa. 14:23 are the marshes caused by the ruin of the canals of the Euphrates in the neighbourhood of Babylon.

The cisterns or pools of the Holy City are for the most part excavations beneath the surface. Such are the vast cisterns in the temple hill that have recently been discovered by the engineers of the Palestine Exploration Fund. These underground caverns are about thirty-five in number, and are capable of storing about ten million gallons of water. They are connected with one another by passages and tunnels.