“balls” is a form of
ball
/bɔːl/ noun, verb, interjection, proper noun
Forms balls balling balled
- noun A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass. “a ball of spittle; a fecal ball”
- noun A quantity of string, thread, etc., wound into a spherical shape. “a ball of wool; a ball of twine”
- noun (cooking) A food preparation formed into a spherical shape. “This dish is served with balls of potato.”
- noun (mathematics) In 3-dimensional Euclidean space, the volume bounded by a sphere.
- noun (mathematics) The set of points in a metric space of any number of dimensions lying within a given distance (the radius) of a given point.
- noun (mathematics) The set of points in a topological space lying within some open set containing a given point.
- noun A jacketed non-expanding bullet, typically of military origin.
- noun (uncountable, obsolete) Such bullets collectively.
- verb (transitive) To form or wind into a ball. “to ball cotton”
- verb (metalworking) To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
- verb (transitive, intransitive, US, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse (with).
- verb (ambitransitive) To gather balls which cling to the feet or skis, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls. “the horse balls”
- verb (slang, usually in present participle) To be hip or cool.
- verb (university slang) To reject from a fraternity or sorority. (Ellipsis of blackball).
- verb (slang) To play basketball. “fuck it, we ball”
- verb (Internet) (slang) Used to indicate general perseverance.
- interjection (sports) 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.
- interjection (Australian rules football) An appeal by the crowd for holding the ball against a tackled player.
- noun A formal dance. “We still have pictures from the ball we had in August 2008.”
- noun (informal) A very enjoyable time. “I had a ball at that concert.”
Synonyms
nonsense chutzpah guts nerve sphere globe testicle roll up wad Formal terms bed coit coitize dight enjoy feague go in unto go to bed with have know musket ball orb testis orchis ballock bollock nut egg Lucille Ball clod
Etymology
From Middle English bal, ball, balle, from an unattested Old English *beall, *bealla (“round object, ball”), 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.
From Middle French bal, from Middle French baler (“to dance”), from Old French baller, from Late Latin ballō (“to dance”). Doublet of baile.
* From a short form of the Middle English given name Baldwin.
* A toponymic surname for a person that lives near a knoll or rounded hill (i.e. somewhere shaped like a ball).
* From the Old Norse given name Balle.
* A habitational surname for a person from Ball, Cornwall, from Cornish Pelen.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any round or roundish body or mass; a sphere or globe; as, a ball of twine; a ball of snow.
- noun A spherical body of any substance or size used to play with, as by throwing, knocking, kicking, etc.
- verb To gather balls which cling to the feet, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls; as, the horse balls; the snow balls.
- verb To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
Etymology [OE. bal, balle; akin to OHG. balla, palla, G. ball, Icel. böllr, ball; cf. F. balle. Cf. 1st Bale, n., Pallmall.]
Etymology [F. bal, fr. OF. baler to dance, fr. LL. ballare. Of uncertain origin; cf. Gr. to toss or throw, or , , to leap, bound, to dance, jump about; or cf. 1st Ball, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “ball”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details