knuckleball
noun, verb
Forms knuckleballs knuckleballing knuckleballed
- noun (baseball) A pitch thrown with the ball gripped on the fingertips and released with no rotation, which travels over an unpredictable path to the plate due to microturbulence in the air. “Even the pitcher doesn't know where his knuckleball is going.”
- noun (cricket) A type of delivery where a fast bowler holds the ball on the knuckles of the index and middle fingers.
- noun (figurative, informal) An event that is hard to predict. “Our vendor keeps throwing us knuckleballs.”
- verb (intransitive, baseball) To pitch knuckleballs.
Synonyms
flutterball floater dancer butterfly ball ghostball bug knuckler
Etymology
From knuckle + ball.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “knuckleball”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details