July 3, 2007

Carom

carom \KAIR-uhm\, noun:
1. A rebound following a collision; a glancing off.
2. A shot in billiards in which the cue ball successively strikes two other balls on the table.

intransitive verb:
1. To strike and rebound; to glance.
2. To make a carom.

transitive verb:
1. To make (an object) bounce off something; to cause to carom.

Three blocks away, in the Rue des Jardiniers, four Moroccan children were kicking a filthy soccer ball up and down the street. It caromed off the parked cars, rolled into the gutter, was kicked again, leaving dirty blotches where it had smacked against the vehicles' fenders.
-- Philip Shelby, Gatekeeper

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