Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An often bright-green cotton or woolen material napped to imitate felt and used chiefly as a cover for gaming tables.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A coarse woolen stuff with a nap on one side, and dyed in plain colors, usually red or green. Baize (or bay) was first manufactured in England in 1561, under letters patent issued to certain refugees from the Netherlands, who had settled at Sandwich and other places and were skilled in weaving. Baize is now chiefly used for linings, table-covers, curtains, etc.; but when first introduced it was a much thinner and finer material, and was used for clothing. See
bay . - n. Any article, as a table-cover, a curtain, etc., made of baize; specifically, in theaters, the plain curtain lowered at the end of a play.
- To cover or line with baize.
Wiktionary
- n. A coarse woolen stuff with a long nap; -- usually dyed in plain colors.
- n. A thick woolen cloth used for coverings on card tables etc. Note that the covering of billiard and snooker tables is often referred to as the Green Baize but is actually a fine woolen cloth and not baize.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A coarse woolen stuff with a long nap; -- usually dyed in plain colors.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a bright green fabric napped to resemble felt; used to cover gaming tables
Etymologies
- From French baies, feminine plural of adjective bai ("bay-colored") mistaken as a singular noun. (Wiktionary)
- French baies, from pl. of bai, bay-colored, from Latin badius. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“(* baize is the green felt fabric used to cover gaming tables)”
“One of the players said baize, which is imitation felt, he said, and Keith more or less conceded this.”
“There are people who look like artizans and who never drink anything but champagne, and walk to the tavern on red baize which is laid down from their hut to the tavern.”
“This is a modified billiards table, covered with green baize, as is normal, but oval rather than rectangular and without pockets — a feature of carambola, where players score points by "caroming" their cue ball off the opponent's cue and object balls on a single shot.”
The Wall Street Journal: Orozco Proves That Size Isn't Everything
“With oil prices soaring and revolution in the air in North Africa and the Middle East, it's little wonder investors want to take a few chips off the green baize and cash them in.”
The Wall Street Journal: No Getting Away From It, Swiss Francs and Gold Are Still the Surest Havens
“On the baize, the balls roll on, but the former stars who now commentate cannot resist blathering about the Jester from Leicester or the Wizard of Wishaw.”
The Guardian: In praise of ... 'Whispering' Ted Lowe | Editorial
“On the table, O'Sullivan's two-year wait for a ranking event title continued as he was beaten 6-5 in the second round by Judd Trump, but the Essex player, who turned 36 on Monday, was keen to discuss matters away from the baize.”
The Guardian: Ronnie O'Sullivan considers retirement after defeat to Judd Trump
“Oh look, playing cards representing the candidates on a green baize table.”
The Guardian: GOP presidential debate in Nevada - as it happened
“When he was given a turn a few minutes later, Jimmy White, seen-it-all-before doyen of the green baize, offered a rather less exclamatory: "Yeah, I think it's good.”
The Guardian: Ronnie O'Sullivan crowned prince of the new Power Snooker generation
“We then repaired to a conference room in the guesthouse and faced each other across a green baize table.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘baize’.
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The "ize" have it
accessorize, finalize, computerize, prioritize, anodize, belizean, bizerte, capsize, citizen, denize, dizen, diazotize and 98 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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phrontistery - b
List of words from phrontistery.info
bywoner, byssus, byssiferous, byssaceous, byrnie, butyric, butyraceous, buttery, buteonine, bunting, burdet, broma and 582 more...
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Open List: Greens
A lits of greens: cooked leafy vegetables; pigments, paint names, compound words, etc; words and phrases that pertain to or contain "green". Please add your favorites!
See this list f...greenery, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, green shoots, viridian green, malachite green, sap green, green grocer, radish greens, beet greens, spring green and 282 more...
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Blood Meridian: The Words
Words from Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian"
argosy, ossuary, thaumaturge, devonian, ristras, chartvail, catafalque, suzerain, argonauts, unrectified, surbated, pyrolatrous and 86 more...
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A Time of Gifts
lambent, gonfalon, ait, eyrie, haberdashery, belfry, capstan, spinney, barbican, hobnail, wharf, waterlogged and 64 more...
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Browning words of cotton - often stic...
words that meander or have a partial dimension:
words that "catch on": peano curves: fractalitescotton, clue, filament, filaria, filum, filovirus, clod, cloud, peano curve, alveoli, nuance, noil and 122 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, B
bloviate, bejesus, brouhaha, behoove, bodacious, bamboozle, banshee, bub, bolus, blob, bubbly, bleb and 414 more...
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...another list...
I've no idea where I got this page full of words, but whatever it is, I want to find it again. May have duplicate words from other lists.
bicameral, aphelion, dirigible, parhelion, flocculus, vernier, corticate, oxalis, pandanus, calabash, plumbago, jonquil and 217 more...
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Henderson the Rain King
Words taken from Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.
yellowback, unkillable, swack, hoarfrost, decapotable, brownian, mackinaw, taxwise, oratorio, picaresque, masonite, catalpa and 109 more...
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C. S. Bird – Grandiloquent Dictionary
All the words from the Grandiloquent Dictionary.
946 of these 2700 words do not yield any results in six different dictionaries, hence many of them might be misspellings.
More in...abacinate, abcedarian, abderian, ablegate, abligurition, ablutophobia, abnormous, acarophobia, acathasia, accipitrine, accidia, accubitus and 2690 more...
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suzyg's Words
brandish, recompence, shopping, dichotomy, paradigm, reverse osmosis, anyway, despite, drunk, degenerate, insipid, grateful and 438 more...
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Tolland's list
Those I've come across and try to keep fresh within my mind.
clandestine, dysphoric, indictive, vigil, fractious, assiduous, indefatigable, ubiquitous, insidious, paroicous, aplomb, sangfroid and 654 more...
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conceptwriter's Words
sloth, jackass, dickhead, technostalgic, futuristic, enigma, impact, addict, nasty, premium, extraordinaire, yearning and 262 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for baize.
oroboros Tod Moran and the green-baize table got me started on this journey (among some others)!! Howard Pease, thank you. Mar 11, 2008