behind the eight ball

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eight ball

n. Games

1. A black pool ball that bears the number eight.

2. A game in billiards played with a cue ball and 15 object balls in which the winner must pocket the eight ball after pocketing the seven balls numbered either higher than or lower than the eight ball, with the requirement that the cue ball must first strike one of the seven balls allotted to a player for a shot to be legitimate. A player who pockets the eight ball before the other seven automatically loses.

Idiom:

behind the eight ball Slang

In an unfavorable or uncomfortable position.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

behind the eight ball

In an unfavorable or uncomfortable position; from the ball in the game of pool that is numbered eight.

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References in periodicals archive ?

My first rounds at Augusta and Bethpage this year put me a little bit behind the eight ball and it's hard to catch up, especially as major championships are played on the toughest courses and if you start to chase on those really tough courses, it's hard to do that."

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He said: "My first rounds at Augusta and Bethpage this year put me behind the eight ball and it's hard to catch up.

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Leigh MW were desperate and played pretty much a perfect game, but we competed at 50 per cent and gave away 15 penalties to five, and you are never going to win when putting yourself behind the eight ball like that in terms of possession.

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Filippo Inzaghi scored twice in an 11-minute blitz at the start of the game, putting United firmly behind the eight ball.

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Trump said in an interview with CNBC that the US is "down a tremendous amount" in terms of trade with China, adding that China "can't match us because otherwise we're always going to be behind the eight ball".

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And when you have a collapse like that it puts you behind the eight ball.

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But this year from a strategy standpoint, we came out knowing that we were behind the eight ball with our hot track setup.

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"I think we were behind the eight ball as soon as they got a partnership like that first up, and we had some exceptional performances throughout the game to drag us back in to what looked like could be a winning position, but the pitch slowed up quite a lot and got drier and drier."

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"We've been put in a position where the players, since mid-November when we came in, have been behind the eight ball. Every game has been high pressure because we've needed to win.

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Karachi Kings were behind the eight ball and despite half centuries from Joe Denly and Babar Azam managed 157-2 in their quota of overs.

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"We were a little behind the eight ball when we played them the first time," Bell told reporters.

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"Obviously we're behind the eight ball but if we put a couple of partnerships together and make them work like they did to us today then we can get ourselves back in the game.