carambole

carambole (plural caramboles)

1. Archaic form of carambola. (star fruit)

carambole (third-person singular simple present caramboles, present participle caramboling, simple past and past participle caramboled)

1. (archaic) To play a carom shot.
   • 1799, Sporting Magazine (volume 13, page 49)

     If the player holes the red ball, he scores three, and upon holing his adversary's ball, he gains two; and thus it frequently happens, that seven are got upon a single stroke, by caramboling and holing both balls.

Borrowed from Spanish carambola.

• IPA^(key): /ka.ʁɑ̃.bɔl/

• Audio (Belgium)

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• Audio

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carambole f (plural caramboles)

1. star fruit

   Les caramboles sont-elles mûres ?

   Are the star fruits ripe?

2. (dated, billiards) red (ball)

   Il a raté son coup de peu ; il est passé à deux millimètres de la carambole.

   He just missed the shot; he missed the red ball by two millimeters.

3. (by extension, dated) French billiards

   La carambole est une variante de billard qui se joue à deux ou plusieurs joueurs, sur une table sans poche, avec des queues et trois billes : La blanche, la pointée (ou le pointu, également blanche parfois jaune) et la carambole (rouge).

   French billiards is a billiard game played by two or more players, on a billiard table with no pockets, using cues and three balls: the white, the dotted (also white but sometimes yellow) and the “carambole” (the red).

4. (cue sports, dated) cannon.

   Ne traduisez plus l'anglais “a carom” par “une carambole” ; préférez le terme “un carambolage” plus fréquent aujourd'hui.

   The English term “a carom” should no longer be translated as “une carambole”; instead use “un carambolage”, which is more common today.

• carambolage
• caramboler

• “carambole” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• IPA^(key): /kaˈram.bo.le/

carambole f

1. plural of carambola