Meanings
- idiomaticIn a difficult situation or tight spot; at a disadvantage.
He was desperate, playing behind the eight-ball.
1 more example
After his last two projects failed, he was really behind the eight-ball.
Synonyms: snookered
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseIn a difficult situation or tight spot; at a disadvantage.
Origin
First use appears c. 1923 in the Buffalo Evening Times. Thought to derive from the game of Kelly pool, in which players assigned balls numerically higher than 8, that is, balls that are behind the 8 ball in order, have little possibility of winning, or from eight-ball pool, where one cannot contact the eight ball on a shot before it is the legal ball, frustrating shots, or more generally, from the fact that the 8 ball is considered harder to aim at because of its color.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
behind the eight-ball. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behind%20the%20eight-ball
“behind the eight-ball.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behind%20the%20eight-ball. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “behind the eight-ball,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behind%20the%20eight-ball.
Source: behind the eight-ball on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.