Baize
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Baize is a coarse woollen (or in cheaper variants cotton) cloth, sometimes called "felt" in American English based on a similarity in appearance.
It is most often used on snooker and billiards tables to cover the slate and cushions.
The surface finish of baize is not very fine (and thus increases friction, perceptibly slowing the balls down, from a player's perspective). Baize is available with and without a perceptible nap; snooker, in which understanding of the effects of the nap is part of the game, uses the nappy variety, while pocket billiards (pool) and carom billiards use the napless type. Table baize is available in many grades, with pool halls preferring smooth, "fast" worsted woollen baize, while rather more fuzzy, "slow" cloth is commonly used for bar/pub pool.
For gaming use it is traditionally dyed green, in mimicry of a lawn (see Cue sport, "History"), thus the common (British English) phrase "the green baize", a synecdochal way to refer to snooker itself. Today, a wide variety of colours are now used for tables (for other uses such as clothing it has always been available in other colours).
At one time, the Green Baize Door (a door to which green baize had been tacked to deaden noise) in a house separated the servants' quarters from the family's living quarters.
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