Curling Terms & Lingo
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.
BUTTON The
smallest ring in the house. It is two feet in diameter, also called the
"pot".
BRUSH
Broom
CCA
Canadian Curling Association
CENTER GUARD
A rock short and in the center of the sheet
CORNER GUARD
A rock short of the house and to the side
DELIVERY
The process of throwing a stone.
DRAW A
shot that comes to rest within the house.
EIGHT END
An end where all eight stones 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.
RIGHT OFF
Stop cleaning, we need a pick
RUN BACK
Driving a front rock back onto another
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.
TICK
Moving a rock a short distance with heavier weight
USCA The United
States Curling Association. The main offices
are in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
USWCA ? The
United States Women?s Curling Association ? See Jen?s article on our website
under USWCA
WCF World
Curling Federation
WCT World
Curling Tour
WICK
Running rock grazing a stationary rock
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.
Curling Lingo
"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.??
