| 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". |
| CCA |
Canadian Curling Association |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| USCA |
The United States Curling Association. The main offices are in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. |
| USWCA |
United States Women's Curling Association. |
| 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. |
