Some commonly used terms:
BITER | A stone barely touching the 12-foot ring. |
BLANK END | Neither team scores in the end. |
BONSPIEL | A curling tournament. |
BURNED STONE | A stone touched while in motion (it has to be removed form the game) |
BUTTON | The smallest ring in the house. It is two feet in diameter, also called the “pot”. |
CCA | Canadian Curling Association |
DELIVERY | The process of throwing a stone. |
DRAW | A shot that comes to rest within the house. |
EIGHT ENDER | An end where all eight stones of one team are counting |
END | When sixteen stones have come to rest, similar to an inning in baseball. |
FREEZE | A stone coming to rest touching another stone. |
FREE GUARD ZONE | The area between the hog line and the tee line, excluding the house. |
FREE GUARD ZONE RULE | The rule that states that an opponent’s rock cannot be removed from play until four rocks have come to rest. |
GUARD | A shot that comes to rest in front of another stone for protection. |
HACK | The pieces of rubber you push off from at either end of the sheet. |
HAMMER | The last shot of the end. |
HOGGER | A shot that comes to rest short or on the hog line and is removed from play. |
HOG LINE | The thick black line 33 feet from the hack. |
HOUSE | The area within the outside circle at either end of the sheet. |
HURRY! | This means to sweep immediately. |
IN-TURN | A stone that rotates clockwise for a right handed player. |
OUT-TURN | A stone that rotates counter clock-wise for a right handed player. |
PEBBLE | The frozen bumps on the ice that the stones ride on. |
PEEL | A hard takeout designed to remove guards. |
RINK | A curling team. |
SHEET | The total playing area for one game. |
SKIP | The captain of the team. |
SPINNER | A rock thrown with excessive spin. |
STEAL | Scoring a point without last rock advantage. |
TAKE-OUT | A shot thrown hard enough to remove another stone from play. Also called a “HIT”. |
TEE LINE | The line that intersects the house at the center line. |
THE “TOSS” | The toss of the coin to determine last rock in the first end. |
ECF | European Curling Federation |
WCF | World Curling Federation |
WCT | World Curling Tour |
There are other subtle curling terms that may be synonymous with the terms listed above. The more time you spend curling, the more you will hear them.
“Hit the broom” | A rock thrown accurately at the aiming point. |
“On the broom” | Same as above. |
“Lost its handle” | A rock that loses its rotation. |
“Nice rock” | Good shot. |
“Nice Toss” | Same as above. |
Tee weight | A rock thrown hard enough to stop on the Tee Line. |
Back ring weight | A rock thrown hard enough to stop in the back of the house. |
Draw the “lid” | Draw to the button. |
Draw the “pin” | Same as above. |
Hack weight | A rock thrown hard enough to stop near the hack.. |
Normal hit | A rock thrown hard enough to remove another rock from play. |
Heavy hit | A rock thrown hard enough to forcefully remove a rock from play. |
“Split’em” | Hitting a rock at such an angle as to split them apart. |
“You dumped it” | A rock thrown inside the line of delivery, usually at the point of release. |
“You flipped it” | A rock thrown outside the line of delivery, usually at the point of release |
“Take the rock” | Sweep closest to the rock. |
“The rock picked” | The moving rock picked up a piece of debris that altered its course. |
“Weld” | A perfect freeze. |
©CurlTech