Ball Definition
- lead
- shell
- bullet
- insider
- duster
- high baby
- wide one
- outside pitch
- inside pitch
- wild-pitch
- ellipsoid
- bulblet
- geoid
- jackstraws
- tetherball
A surname.
- To have control over someone; have someone at one's mercy.
- Alert, competent, or efficient:
a teacher who is really on the ball.
- Relating to qualities, such as competence, skill, or knowledge, that are necessary for success:
a manager who has a lot on the ball; a student who has nothing on the ball.
- to muddle or bungle
- to be alert; be efficient
- to assume responsibility; take command
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Ball
- have
- on the ball
- ball up
- be on the ball
- carry the ball
- get (or keep) the ball rolling
- have something on the ball
- play ball
Origin of Ball
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From Middle English bal, ball, balle, from Old English *beall, *bealla (“round object, ball”) or Old Norse bǫllr (“a ball”) (whence the Icelandic böllur (“scrotum; penis; a ball”)), both from Proto-Germanic *balluz, *ballô (“ball”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoln- (“bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, inflate, swell”). Cognate with Old Saxon ball, Dutch bal, Old High German bal, ballo (German Ball (“ball”); Ballen (“bale”)). Related forms in Romance are borrowings from Germanic. See also balloon, bale.
From Wiktionary
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French bal from Old French from baller to dance from Late Latin ballāre from Greek ballizein gwelə- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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Middle English bal probably from Old English beall bhel-2 in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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From French bal, from Late Latin ballare.
From Wiktionary
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