ball

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass.

   “a ball of spittle; a fecal ball”

2. (countable, uncountable)A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass.

   “a ball of wool; a ball of twine”

3. (countable, uncountable)Homologue or analogue of a disk in the Euclidean plane.
4. (countable, uncountable)Homologue or analogue of a disk in the Euclidean plane.
5. (countable, uncountable)Homologue or analogue of a disk in the Euclidean plane.
6. (countable, uncountable)A solid, spherical nonexplosive missile for a cannon, rifle, gun, etc.
7. (obsolete, uncountable)A solid, spherical nonexplosive missile for a cannon, rifle, gun, etc.

   “[…] the Good Old Cause, which, as they seemed to represent it, smelt of Gunpowder and ball […]”

   “I gave each of them a Musket with a Firelock on it, and about eight Charges of Powder and Ball, charging them to be very good Husbands of both, and not to use either of them but upon urgent Occasion.”

   “[…] some headstrong Maroons were using a soldier of Captain Craskell’s ill, and compelling him to write to his commander, that it was too late to do any thing good, and that they wanted nothing, having got plenty of powder and ball […]”

   “This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.”

8. (countable, uncountable)A roundish, protuberant portion of some part of the body.

   “the ball of the thumb”

9. (countable, uncountable)A roundish, protuberant portion of some part of the body.
10. (countable, uncountable)The globe; the earthly sphere.

    “c. 1712', Joseph Addison, Ode to the Creator of the World What, though in solemn Silence, all / Move round the dark terrestrial Ball!”

    “Thus, if eternal Justice rules the ball, / Thus shall your wives, and thus your children fall;”

11. (countable)An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game

    “Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.”

    “Graham secured victory with five minutes left, coolly lifting the ball over Asmir Begovic.”

12. (uncountable)An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game

    “The children were playing ball on the beach.”

    “George played his college ball at Stanford.”

13. (countable)An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game
14. (countable)An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game

    “If you get to a million points, you get another ball.”

15. (countable)An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game
16. (countable)An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game

    “After Essien's poor attempt flew into the stands, Rodrigo Moreno—Bolton's on-loan winger from Benfica who was making his full Premier League debut—nearly exposed the Blues with a lovely ball for Johan Elmander, but it just skipped away from his team-mate's toes.”

    “Shetland increased the lead in the 22nd minute when Kirkness shot first time from a ball that was fired into the area from outside the 25-metre line.”

    “Mark Wright sent a speculative ball for me to chase after and I found myself leaving Tony Adams in my wake, with only Seaman to beat.”

17. (countable)An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game
18. (countable, metonymically, uncountable)An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game
19. (countable, mildly, plural-normally, slang, uncountable, vulgar)A testicle.

    “Hitler has only got one ball, / Göring has two but very small, / Himmler is rather sim'lar, / But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.”

20. (countable, in-plural, mildly, plural-normally, slang, uncountable, vulgar)A testicle.

    “That’s a load of balls, and you know it!”

21. (countable, in-plural, mildly, plural-normally, slang, uncountable, vulgar)A testicle.

    “I doubt he’s got the balls to tell you off.”

22. (countable, historical, uncountable)A leather-covered cushion, fastened to a handle called a ballstock; formerly used by printers for inking the form, then superseded by the roller.
23. (countable, historical, uncountable)A large pill, a form in which medicine was given to horses; a bolus.

    “The laxative alterative has not this advantage, the aloes, of which it is composed, being extremely bitter, and therefore requiring to be given in the form of a ball.”

24. (countable, singular, singular-only, slang, uncountable)One thousand US dollars.

    “I'ma let these niggas have it, go on stage and throw a forty ball”

    “Forty ball all in these leather jeans Diamonds studs, I make a bum nigga think twice”

    “Forty ball on my wrist, nigga, I cashed out on it (Damn) Forty bands on my neck, nigga, I maxed out on it (Damn)”

    “Dropped a twenty ball in Gallery Department”

25. A formal dance.

    “We still have pictures from the ball we had in August 2008.”

26. (informal)A very enjoyable time.

    “I had a ball at that concert.”

27. A competitive event among young African-American and Latin American LGBTQ+ people in which prizes are awarded for drag and similar performances. See ball culture.

verb

1. (transitive)To form or wind into a ball.

   “to ball cotton”

2. To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
3. (US, intransitive, transitive, vulgar)To have sexual intercourse (with).

   “Max says it works both ways. “I mean if she comes in and tells me she wants to ball Don, maybe, I say ‘O.K., baby, it's your trip.’””

   “Jefferson Fuck Poland wrote of three other anti-free-sex influences: […]heroin use (“Junkies rarely ball, unless for cash to buy junk. Heroin provides an orgasmic feeling of its own while suppressing sexual desire”); […].”

4. (ambitransitive)To gather balls which cling to the feet or skis, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls.

   “the horse balls”

   “the snow balls”

5. (participle, present, regional, slang)To be hip or cool.
6. To reject from a fraternity or sorority. (Ellipsis of blackball).

   “This highlights the issue of toxic masculinity in fraternities: a pledge only becomes a man, or a brother, by enduring as much abuse as he can and by proving his competence with girls. If he cannot, he is not only "balled" but seen as a "faggot" (this is a term directly from the work).”

   “All of these things are done by pledges in hopes of not getting 'balled' or kicked out.”

7. (slang)To play basketball.

   “fuck it, we ball”

8. To spend money extravagantly.
9. (transitive)To punish by affixing a ball and chain.

   “any man refusing to do police duty will be punished by the sergts by balling him the rest of the day.”

10. (transitive)Of bees: to kill (a wasp) by surrounding it in large numbers so as to raise its body heat.
11. (intransitive)To operate (a vehicle) at high speed (whether balls-out, balls to the wall, or ballin' the jack, each of which comes ultimately from ball via a different route).

    “Near-synonym: haul ass”

    “Hang back for a bit — that Peterbilt in the left lane is really ballin’ and I'd rather not be real close to him.”

intj

1. An exclamation to inform players on an adjacent playing area that a loose ball from another game has entered their playing area; typically implies that play should be paused until the ball has been retrieved.
2. An appeal by the crowd for holding the ball against a tackled player.

   “A good tackle (and some bad ones) will bring a cry of "Ball!" from the crowd – a plea for a holding the ball free kick.”

name

1. An English surname.
2. A town in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States.
3. A hamlet in Egloshayle parish, on the eastern outskirts of Wadebridge, Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SX0073).