ball up

B b

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- UK Pronunciation
- UK IPA
- [bawl uhp]
- /bɔl ʌp/
- /bɔːl ʌp/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [bawl uhp]
- /bɔl ʌp/

Definitions of ball up words

noun ball up to muddle or bungle 3
noun ball up a spherical or approximately spherical body or shape; sphere: He rolled the piece of paper into a ball. 1
noun ball up a round or roundish body, of various sizes and materials, either hollow or solid, for use in games, as baseball, football, tennis, or golf. 1
noun ball up a game played with a ball, especially baseball: The boys are out playing ball. 1
noun ball up Baseball. a pitched ball, not swung at by the batter, that does not pass over home plate between the batter's shoulders and knees. 1
noun ball up Military. a solid, usually spherical projectile for a cannon, rifle, pistol, etc., as distinguished from a shell. projectiles, especially bullets, collectively. 1

See all 32 definitions of ball up

Information block about the term

Origin of ball up

First appearance:

before 1175

One of the 8% oldest English words

1175-1225; Middle English bal, balle < Old French < Germanic *ballaz; compare Old Norse bǫllr, Old High German bal, ballo, balla, German Ball, Dutch bal; perhaps akin to Latin follis leather bag; see ballock(s)

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Ball up

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Ball up

ball up popularity

A common word. It’s meaning is known to most children of preschool age. About 98% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word.

Most Europeans know this English word. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between "mom" and "screwdriver".

ball up usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for ball up

verb ball up

blunder — A blunder is a stupid or careless mistake.
boggle — If you say that the mind boggles at something or that something boggles the mind, you mean that it is so strange or amazing that it is difficult to imagine or understand.
bungle — If you bungle something, you fail to do it properly, because you make mistakes or are clumsy.
flub — a blunder.
foul up — something that is foul.

All 20 Synonyms of ball up