Ball

noun balls

1. countable, uncountable A solid or hollow sphere, or roughly spherical mass. a ball of spittle; a fecal ball
2. countable, uncountable A quantity of string, thread, etc., wound into a spherical shape. a ball of wool; a ball of twine
3. countable, uncountable A food preparation formed into a spherical shape. This dish is served with balls of potato.
4. countable, uncountable In 3-dimensional Euclidean space, the volume bounded by a sphere.
5. countable, uncountable The set of points in a metric space of any number of dimensions lying within a given distance (the radius) of a given point.
6. countable, uncountable The set of points in a topological space lying within some open set containing a given point.
7. countable, uncountable A jacketed non-expanding bullet, typically of military origin.
8. obsolete, uncountable Such bullets collectively. […] the Good Old Cause, which, as they seemed to represent it, smelt of Gunpowder and ball […]
9. countable, uncountable A roundish, protuberant portion of some part of the body. the ball of the thumb
10. countable, uncountable The front of the bottom of the foot, just behind the toes.
11. countable, uncountable The globe; the earthly sphere. c. 1712', Joseph Addison, Ode to the Creator of the World What, though in solemn Silence, all / Move round the dark terrestrial Ball!
12. countable An object that is the focus of many sports and games, in which it may be thrown, caught, kicked, bounced, rolled, chased, retrieved, hit with an instrument, spun, etc., usually roughly spherical or ovoid but whose size, weight, bounciness, colour, etc. differ according to the game Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.
13. uncountable Any sport or game involving a ball; its play, literally or figuratively. The children were playing ball on the beach.
14. countable A pitch that falls outside of the strike zone.
15. countable An opportunity to launch the pinball into play. If you get to a million points, you get another ball.
16. countable A single delivery by the bowler, six of which make up an over.
17. countable a kick (or hit in e.g. field hockey) of the ball towards where one or more teammates is expected to be. (Distinguished from a pass by a longer distance travelled or less specific target point.) After Essien's poor attempt flew into the stands, Rodrigo Moreno—Bolton's on-loan winger from Benfica who was making his full Premier League debut—nearly exposed the Blues with a lovely ball for Johan Elmander, but it just skipped away from his team-mate's toes.
18. countable An apparatus.
19. countable, metonymically, uncountable An apparatus program with a ball.
20. countable, mildly, plural normally, slang, uncountable, vulgar A testicle. Hitler has only got one ball, / Göring has two but very small, / Himmler is rather sim'lar, / But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.
21. countable, in plural, mildly, plural normally, slang, uncountable Nonsense. That’s a load of balls, and you know it!
22. countable, in plural, mildly, plural normally, slang, uncountable Courage. I doubt he’s got the balls to tell you off.
23. countable, historical, uncountable A leather-covered cushion, fastened to a handle called a ballstock; formerly used by printers for inking the form, then superseded by the roller.
24. countable, historical, uncountable A large pill, a form in which medicine was given to horses; a bolus. The laxative alterative has not this advantage, the aloes, of which it is composed, being extremely bitter, and therefore requiring to be given in the form of a ball.
25. countable, singular, singular only, slang, uncountable One thousand US dollars. I'ma let these niggas have it, go on stage and throw a forty ball

Similar: sphere, globe, testicle

verb balls · balling · balled

1. transitive To form or wind into a ball. to ball cotton
2. To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
3. US, intransitive, transitive, vulgar To have sexual intercourse (with). 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.’”
4. ambitransitive To gather balls which cling to the feet or skis, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls. the horse balls
5. participle, present, regional, slang To be hip or cool.
6. To reject from a fraternity or sorority. (Ellipsis of blackball). 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).
7. slang To play basketball. fuck it, we ball
8. Internet (slang) Used to indicate general perseverance.
9. To spend money extravagantly.
10. transitive To punish by affixing a ball and chain. any man refusing to do police duty will be punished by the sergts by balling him the rest of the day.
11. transitive Of bees: to kill (a wasp) by surrounding it in large numbers so as to raise its body heat.
12. intransitive 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). Near-synonym: haul ass

interjection

1. 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.
2. An appeal by the crowd for holding the ball against a tackled player. A good tackle (and some bad ones) will bring a cry of "Ball!" from the crowd – a plea for a holding the ball free kick.

noun balls

1. A formal dance. We still have pictures from the ball we had in August 2008.
2. informal A very enjoyable time. I had a ball at that concert.
3. A competitive event among young African-American and Latin American LGBTQ+ people in which prizes are awarded for drag and similar performances. See ball culture.

proper noun

1. An English surname.
2. A town in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States.
3. A hamlet in Egloshayle parish, on the eastern outskirts of Wadebridge, Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SX0073).