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. |
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