| ball | |
| 1. n. A solid or hollow sphere, or part thereof. | |
| a ball of spittle; a fecal ball | |
| 2. n. A quantity of string, thread, etc., wound into a spherical shape. | |
| a ball of wool; a ball of twine | |
| 3. n. (ballistics) A solid, spherical nonexplosive missile for a cannon, etc. | |
| 4. n. # A jacketed non-expanding bullet, typically of military origin. | |
| 5. n. # (obsolete) Such bullets collectively. | |
| 6. n. A roundish protuberant portion of some part of the body. | |
| the ball of the thumb; the ball of the foot | |
| 7. n. (anatomy) The front of the bottom of the foot, just behind the toes. | |
| 8. n. The globe; the earthly sphere. | |
| 9. n. (mathematics) The set of points in a metric space lying within a given distance (the radius) of a given point; specifically, the homologue of the disk | |
| 10. n. (mathematics, more generally) The set of points in a topological space lying within some open set containing a given point; the analogue of the disk in | |
| 11. n. An object, generally spherical, used for playing games. | |
| 12. n. (sport) A round or ellipsoidal object. | |
| 13. n. Any simple game involving a ball. | |
| The children were playing ball on the beach. | |
| The children were playing ball in the garden. | |
| 14. n. (baseball) A pitch that falls outside of the strike zone. | |
| 15. n. (pinball) An opportunity to launch the pinball into play. | |
| If you get to a million points, you get another ball. | |
| 16. n. (cricket) A single delivery by the bowler, six of which make up an over. | |
| 17. n. (soccer) A pass; a kick of the football towards a teammate. | |
| 18. n. (mildly, vulgar, slang) A testicle. | |
| 19. n. Nonsense. | |
| That’s a load of balls, and you know it! | |
| 20. n. Courage. | |
| I doubt he’s got the balls to tell him off. | |
| 21. n. (printing, historical) A leather-covered cushion, fastened to a handle called a ballstock; formerly used by printers for inking the form, then superseded by the roller. | |
| 22. n. (farriery, historical) A large pill, a form in which medicine was given to horses; a bolus. | |
| 23. v. To form or wind into a ball. | |
| to ball cotton | |
| 24. v. (metalworking) To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling. | |
| 25. v. (transitive, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with. | |
| 26. v. To gather balls which cling to the feet, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls. | |
| The horse balls; the snow balls. | |
| 27. v. (slang) To be hip or cool. | |
| 28. v. (nonstandard, slang) To play basketball. | |
| 29. interj. (Australian rules football) An appeal by the crowd for holding the ball against a tackled player. This is heard almost any time an opposition player is tackled, without regard to whether the rules abo | |
| 30. n. A formal dance. | |
| 31. n. (informal) A very enjoyable time. | |
| I had a ball at that concert. | |
