ball
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: bôl
ipa: /bɔːl/
ipa: /baːl/
ipa: /bɔl/
ipa: /bɑl/
homophone: bawl
homophone: (cot–caught merger) Basle
rhymes: -ɔːl
Forms: form: balls
form: balling
form: balled
form: balled
Etymology: From Middle English bal, ball, balle, from an unattested Old English *beall, *bealla (“round object, ball”) or Old Norse bǫllr (“a ball”), both from Proto-Germanic *balluz, *ballô (“ball”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰol-n- (“ball, 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.
Senses: examples: text: to ball cotton
synonyms: roll up
wad
glosses: To form or wind into a ball.
topics: arts
crafts
engineering
hobbies
lifestyle
metallurgy
metalworking
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
examples: text: 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.’”
ref: 1968, Joan Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem:
text: 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”); […].
ref: 1991, Timothy Miller, quoting Jefferson Poland, The hippies and American values, University of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 69:
synonyms: word: Formal terms
word: bed
word: coit
word: coitize
word: dight
word: enjoy
word: feague
word: go in unto
word: go to bed with
word: have
word: know
word: lie by
word: lie with
word: love
word: mount
word: occupy
word: penetrate
word: season
word: seduce
word: sleep with
word: take
word: Any of Thesaurus:copulate + "with"
word: Informal and slang terms
word: ball
word: bang
word: bauf
word: beep
word: be with
word: bone
word: boff
word: boink
word: bonk
word: boom-boom
word: dick
word: diddle
word: dig out
word: do
word: doink
word: drill
word: eff
word: expletive deleted
word: feck
word: fill
word: frack
word: frak
word: frick
word: frig
word: fuck
word: get into someone's pants
word: get over on
word: get up in
word: give someone one
word: give someone the time
word: go with
word: have one's way with
word: have one's wicked way with
word: hit
word: hump
word: jape
word: jump
word: jump someone's bones
word: knob
word: knock
word: knock off
word: know someone in the biblical sense
word: lay
word: love up
word: make
word: nail
word: plough
word: plug
word: poke
word: pork
word: pound
word: prig
word: pump
word: ream
word: rock
word: roger
word: root
word: run through
word: rut
word: sard
word: schlong
word: screw
word: see to
word: service
word: shaft
word: shag
word: shelve
word: slay
word: slip it to
word: smash
word: smush
word: stallionize
word: swive
word: tap
word: tup
word: wap
glosses: To have sexual intercourse (with).
examples: text: the horse balls
text: the snow balls
glosses: To gather balls which cling to the feet or skis, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls.
glosses: To be hip or cool.
examples: text: 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).
ref: 2018 July 12, “'I Thought Frats Were Like Their Movies, and They Totally Are': A Review of 'Alpha Class'”, in College Media Network:
text: All of these things are done by pledges in hopes of not getting 'balled' or kicked out.
ref: 2019 November 25, Annie Martin, “UCF frat suspended after report of pledges being forced to smoke marijuana, drink 'entire bottles' of alcohol”, in Orlando Sentinel:
qualifier: university slang
glosses: To reject from a fraternity or sorority. (Ellipsis of blackball).
examples: text: fuck it, we ball
translation: (Internet?) slang, used to indicate general perseverance
english: (Internet?) slang, used to indicate general perseverance
glosses: To play basketball.
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: To spend money extravagantly.
examples: text: any man refusing to do police duty will be punished by the sergts by balling him the rest of the day.
ref: 1865, Camp Sumpter, Andersonville National Historic Site, Rules and Regulations of the Prison:
glosses: To punish by affixing a ball and chain.
glosses: Of bees: to kill (a wasp) by surrounding it in large numbers so as to raise its body heat.
examples: text: Near-synonym: haul ass
text: Hang back for a bit — that Peterbilt in the left lane is really ballin’ and I'd rather not be real close to him.
glosses: 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).
Derived terms: ball down
ball it off
ball off