Baize is a coarse woollen (or in cheaper variants cotton) cloth, similar in texture to felt, but more durable.

History

A mid-17th-century English ditty – much quoted in histories of ale and beer brewing in England – refers to 1525:
''Heresies'' refers to the Protestant Reformation, while ''bays'' is the

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

spelling for ''baize'' (though ''bay'' and ''baize'' eventually came to describe two similar but distinguishable types of cloth, as described below).

Applications

Baize is often used on

billiard tables A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that ...

to cover the and , and is often used on other kinds of gaming tables (usually gambling) such as those for

blackjack Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...

, baccarat, craps and other casino games. It is also found as a writing surface, particularly on 19th century pedestal desks. The surface finish of baize is coarse, thus increasing rolling resistance and perceptibly slowing billiard balls. Baize is available with and without a perceptible

nap A nap is a short period of sleep, typically taken during daytime hours as an adjunct to the usual nocturnal sleep period. Naps are most often taken as a response to drowsiness during waking hours. A nap is a form of biphasic or polyphasic sl ...

Snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

, in which understanding nap effects is part of the game, uses the nappy variety, while pool and carom billiards use the napless type. For gaming use, baize is traditionally

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...

d green, in mimicry of a lawn ''(see Cue sport, "History")'', though wide variety of table colours have become accepted.

Bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

was similar stuff to baize, but lighter in weight and with a shorter nap.

Idioms and catchphrases

* "Let's get the boys on the baize!" has been a catchphrase of BBC TV

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

presenter Rob Walker since 2008. * At one time, "the green baize door" (a door to which cloth had been tacked to deaden noise) in a house separated the servants' quarters from the family's living quarters; Also republished as ''The Fallen Idol''. hence the phrase's usage as a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...

for domestic service. Moving men in the children's book '' The Railway Children'' wore green baize aprons.

References

External links

* {{Fabric Cue sports equipment Pile fabrics Snooker equipment Woven fabrics Waulked textiles ja:ラシャ

History

Applications

Idioms and catchphrases

See also

References

External links