three-pointer
Pluralthree-pointers
- 1A shot in basketball made from beyond the three-point line, scoring three points.
He drained a three-pointer from the corner to tie the game.
Their offense relies on quick passing to open up three-pointers.
Note
Players once had to argue for this long-range basket. In The Drive Inside Me (1966), Bob Pettit wished that a shot beyond an established line would "become a three pointer" and "stand out like a home run in baseball." He writes it open; the hyphenated spelling is the more common one. Unlike the general scoring sense, this one always means a shot from beyond the arc.
- 2A goal or other scoring play that is worth three points.
Coaches value a reliable kicker who can convert three-pointers under pressure.
Each three-pointer brought the trailing side closer to a comeback.
Note
Built plainly from three, point and -er, the word names a score by its value, not by how it was made, so it travels across codes. In American football it can be a place-kicked field goal; in rugby, a penalty or drop goal. David Parry-Jones's The Golden Years of Welsh Rugby (1982) calls Barry John's try "the last three-pointer" scored for Wales, a reminder that a try once counted for three.
- 3An airplane landing in which all three wheels make contact with the ground simultaneously.
The veteran aviator greased a three-pointer despite the gusty crosswind.
Tailwheel training emphasizes clean three-pointers on short runways.
Note
A pilot's word from tailwheel airplanes: the two main wheels and the tailwheel meet the runway at the same instant, with the airplane in its slow, near-stall attitude. Pilots treat it as something earned. Paul Paddock, writing "I Solo in Seven Hours" for Popular Mechanics in 1930, "resolved to score a three-pointer." He talks about the landing in the language of the scoring sense.
- 4A deer or similar animal whose antlers carry three points, or tines.
The buck turned out to be a three-pointer, smaller than they had hoped.
Several three-pointers moved through the clearing before the larger stag appeared.
Note
Hunters rate a buck by its rack, and the word is one rung in a counting series. John B. Griffin, in a 1918 piece for Oregon Sportsman, sorts the deer he sees into a three-pointer, a seven-pointer and a spike. The number changes freely (four-pointer, ten-pointer), and spike stands outside the count for the youngest antlers.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "three" plus "point" plus the suffix "-er".