The curling glossary

A

Alternate — also Spare, fifth In the rules

A registered non-playing member of the team, eligible to come in for one of the four. At World Curling events only one alternate may be registered for a competition, and a player they replace cannot come back.

Arithmetically eliminated In the rules

The point at which a team cannot reach a tie or a win with the stones remaining. A game can be stopped here: a team may finish the current end but may not start a new one.

Away end In the rules

The end of the sheet the first stone of the game is thrown toward. The opposite of the home end.

B

Back line In the rules

The line across the sheet 6 ft behind the tee line. A stone whose whole body crosses the outside edge of it is out of play and removed immediately.

Back of the house In the rules

The half of the house behind the tee line. A stone here is harder to freeze onto and harder to remove without rolling out.

Backing

A stone sitting directly behind another, so that if the front one is hit out, the shooter is likely to be stopped by the one behind. Also called back cover.

Biter In the rules

A stone only just touching the outer edge of the twelve-foot ring. It counts if it touches at all — which is what the measuring stick exists to settle.
“Is that a biter?” means: fetch the stick.

Blank end In the rules

An end where nobody scores. The hammer does not change hands, which is why a team with last stone will often blank deliberately rather than take a single.

Bonspiel — also Spiel In the rules

A curling tournament. The word is Scottish, is older than most of the rules, and covers everything from a club weekend to a Grand Slam.

Broom — also Brush In the rules

The thing you sweep with. Strictly the rulebook calls it a sweeping device; nobody else does. Also, confusingly, the target the skip holds out to aim at.

Burned stone In the rules

A moving stone touched by a player or their equipment. If your own team burns it before the far hog line, it comes out; inside the house the non-offending team chooses what happens. Calling your own burn on yourself is expected.

Button In the rules

The small circle at the exact centre of the house. Its minimum radius is 6 inches. Being on the button is not itself worth anything — being closer than any opposition stone is.

C

Centre line In the rules

The line running down the middle of the sheet, joining the tee lines and extending 12 ft past each.

Come around In the rules

A draw that curls in behind a guard. The signature shot of the modern game and the one the free guard zone exists to make possible.

Counter In the rules

Any stone in or touching the house — a potential point, whether or not it is currently counting.

Courtesy line In the rules

A short line 4 ft outside each hog line, marking where the non-delivering team’s sweepers stand so the umpire’s view of the hog line is clear.

Curl In the rules

The sideways bend of a stone as it travels. Roughly a metre on a draw. Why it happens is genuinely unsettled — see the physics page.

D

Delivery In the rules

The whole motion of throwing a stone, from settling in the hack to releasing.

Delivery stick — also Stick, extender In the rules

A device clipping to the handle so a stone can be thrown standing up. Required equipment in wheelchair curling; not permitted in other World Curling competitions, but common and welcome in club play.

Double — also Double take-out In the rules

One shot that removes two opposition stones.

Draw In the rules

Any shot thrown to come to rest rather than to hit something. Also, the schedule of games at a bonspiel, and the act of a stone curling. Context does all the work.

Draw Shot Challenge — also DSC In the rules

The tie-break used to rank teams after a round robin: the average of their last stone draws, with the worst discarded.

Draw weight In the rules

Enough weight to reach the house and stop. Distinct from every takeout weight, which is defined by where the stone would end up if it hit nothing.

E

Eight-ender — also Snowman

An end in which one team scores all eight of its stones. Vanishingly rare — rarer than a perfect game in bowling — and a plaque on the clubhouse wall.

End In the rules

The unit a game is divided into: sixteen stones thrown, eight per team, then the score is counted. Five per team in mixed doubles. Ten ends in a full international game, eight in most other formats.

Extra end In the rules

Played if the score is tied after the scheduled ends. First team to score wins, so an extra end is sudden death and the hammer is enormous.

F

Fall

A part of the sheet that sits fractionally low, so stones drift toward it. A fall can add to the curl on one turn and cancel it on the other, which is how a sheet ends up swinging four feet one way and one foot the other.

Free Guard Zone — also FGZ In the rules

The area between the hog line and the tee line at the playing end, excluding the house. Opposition stones sitting in it cannot be knocked out of play until five stones have been thrown in the end.

Freeze In the rules

A draw that comes to rest touching another stone, dead in front of it. Almost impossible to remove without leaving something behind, and the hardest shot in curling to play well.

G

Guard In the rules

A stone in front of the house, protecting something behind it — or protecting space you intend to use later.

H

Hack In the rules

The rubber foothold you push out of. There are two at each end, either side of the centre line; a right-handed curler uses the left one.

Hack weight In the rules

A gentle takeout — enough to reach the hack at the far end if it hit nothing. The lightest of the named hitting weights.

Hammer In the rules

Last stone of the end, and a real advantage: it is worth roughly three quarters of a point. It goes to whoever did not score in the previous end, which is why scoring one point with it can be a bad outcome.
“We have hammer” is said the way other sports say “we’re serving”.

Heavy In the rules

Thrown with more speed than needed. The stone goes too far. The opposite of light.

Hit and roll In the rules

A takeout where the shooter, having removed a stone, rolls on to a useful place of its own. The difference between a good hit and a great one.

Hog line In the rules

The thick line 21 ft in front of each tee line. Two rules attach to it: the stone must be released before the near one, and must fully cross the far one to stay in play.

Hog line violation In the rules

Releasing the stone after your hand has crossed the near hog line. The stone comes out. At top level this is judged by sensors in the handle rather than by eye.

Hogged stone In the rules

A stone that fails to cross the far hog line completely and is removed — unless it struck another stone on the way, in which case it stays.

Home end In the rules

The end of the sheet the first stone of the game is delivered from.

House — also Rings In the rules

The target: four concentric circles of 6 ft, 4 ft, 2 ft and 6 in radius. Only stones in or touching it can score.

Hurry In the rules

The instruction to sweep harder. Usually delivered as “hurry hard”, at volume, with increasing urgency.
The loudest thing in curling, and the reason people know the sport exists.

I

In-turn In the rules

For a right-handed curler, a clockwise rotation, curling the stone to the right. Anticlockwise for a left-hander. Named for the way the hand turns in toward the body, which is why the names swap with handedness.

L

Last Stone Draw — also LSD In the rules

Two draws to the button thrown by each team after pre-game practice, one clockwise and one anticlockwise, to decide who takes last stone in the first end. Closest average wins the choice.

Lead In the rules

The player who throws the first two stones of each end, and sweeps the other six. Usually the team’s best sweeper, and the position where guards live or die.

Light — also Never

Thrown with too little speed. The stone stops short.
“Never!” shouted from the house means the sweepers should have started already.

Line

The direction a stone is aimed, as distinct from its weight. Skips call line by holding the brush where they want the stone to be released at.

M

Measure In the rules

A device pivoting on the pin at the centre of the house to decide which of two stones is closer. Only allowed once every stone in the end has been thrown — except to check whether a stone is in play or in the free guard zone.

N

No-tick rule In the rules

Before the sixth stone of an end, you may not knock an opposition free-guard-zone stone off the centre line. The non-offending team can put everything back, or leave it. It closed a loophole that let teams neutralise centre guards without removing them. International from 2022–23, and in Canadian championships from 2023–24.

O

Out-turn In the rules

For a right-handed curler, an anticlockwise rotation, curling the stone to the left.

P

Pebble In the rules

Droplets of water sprayed onto the sheet before play, which freeze into small bumps. The stone rides on their tops. Without pebble a stone would barely travel and would not curl at all.

Peel In the rules

A hard takeout aimed at removing a guard and having the shooter follow it out of play, leaving nothing behind. The most destructive shot in the game and the one the free guard zone was written to limit.

Pick

A stone deflected off line by a piece of debris — a hair, a fleck of frost — on the ice. Unpredictable, invisible, and the standard explanation for a shot nobody can otherwise account for.

Port In the rules

A gap between two stones, big enough to throw through if you are feeling confident.

Positioned stones In the rules

In mixed doubles, the two stones placed on the sheet before each end begins — one per team, one as a centre guard and one in the back of the four-foot.

Power play In the rules

In mixed doubles, once per game, the team with the placement choice may put the positioned stones out to one side instead of on the centre line, clearing the middle and opening up a big end. Not allowed in an extra end.

R

Raise In the rules

Bumping one of your own stones forward with another, usually to move it into the house or behind cover.

Run

A track on the sheet where the ice is faster, usually worn in by traffic. A stone crossing it speeds up and straightens.

Runback

A takeout played by hitting a front stone hard enough to drive it back into another one. Spectacular when it works.

S

Second In the rules

The player who throws the third and fourth stones of the end. Usually the other half of the sweeping engine with the lead.

Sheet In the rules

The strip of ice a game is played on: 150 ft long by up to 15 ft 7 in wide, with a house at each end.

Shot stone — also Shot In the rules

Whichever stone is currently closest to the button. “We’re sitting shot” means you would score at least one if the end stopped now.

Skip In the rules

The player who directs the team, stands in the house holding the brush as a target, and usually throws the last two stones. Captain rather than best player, though frequently both.

Slider In the rules

The slippery sole on one shoe, which is how a curler slides out of the hack. The single most disconcerting thing about a first visit to a rink.

Split time

The stopwatch reading between two fixed points as a stone travels, used to judge weight. Almost always taken between the two hog lines. On keener ice, the same finishing position gives a longer split.

Steal

Scoring without the hammer. The most valuable thing that can happen to a team, and the reason the team without last stone plays for chaos.

Swingy In the rules

Ice that curls a lot. The opposite is straight ice. Swingy ice makes guards matter and come-arounds routine; straight ice turns the game into hitting.

T

Take-out — also Hit In the rules

Removing a stone by hitting it.

Tee In the rules

The exact centre of the house, where the pin goes and where every measurement is taken from.

Tee line In the rules

The line across the sheet through the centre of the house. Sweeping rules change at it: past the tee line, only one player per team may sweep, and the opposition may sweep your stone.

Thinking time

The chess-clock system used in competition. Your clock runs only while you are deciding — 38 minutes each for a ten-end game, 22 in mixed doubles. Run out and you forfeit.

Tick

Clipping a centre guard just enough to move it off the centre line without removing it. Effective enough that the no-tick rule was written to stop it.

Top of the house In the rules

The half of the house in front of the tee line.

V

Vice-skip — also Mate, third, vice In the rules

The player who takes charge of the house while the skip throws, and who agrees the score with the opposing vice at the end of each end. Usually throws fifth and sixth.

W

Weight In the rules

How hard the stone is thrown. Curling’s single most important variable, and the one every other term is calibrated against.

Wheelchair lines In the rules

Two lines either side of the centre line, 18 in out, marking where a wheelchair curler may start their delivery from when releasing between the house and the hog line.