ball game
or ballgame
any game played with a ball, especially baseball or softball.
Informal. a situation and all its attendant circumstances: Having a new administration in power changes the entire ball game at city hall.: Compare new ball game.
Archaeology. a ceremonial game of both ritual and sporting significance, played by teams on a ball court in Mesoamerican cultures from the Preclassic period to the Spanish conquest.
Origin of ball game
1Words Nearby ball game
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use ball game in a sentence
This might mean limiting how often you mow your lawn, relocating your whiffle ball games, and keeping your pets leashed rather than letting them run free.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I remember imagining that, one day, it would all suddenly open up and we would go back to our schools, churches, bars and ball games and cheer and laugh about how crazy that all was.
He directed the ball games at Ebbets Field, the baseball games.
If we’re sequencing about 20% of cases, then we might start to see something and we would be in the ball game to find new variants.
The COVID-19 Virus Is Mutating. What Does That Mean for Vaccines? | Alice Park | January 7, 2021 | TimePeople will once again be able to get together with their families and friends, go into an office, eat inside at restaurants, go to a ball game and take vacations.
“If anything got in the way of a rodeo, like a ball game, the ball game would have to wait,” Clyde Frost said.
And unlike Collins, Sam was doing it at the beginning of his career—a whole other ball game.
How Howard Bragman Orchestrated Michael Sam’s Coming Out | Itay Hod | March 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTMocking America in person, to its collective face, is a whole new ball game—and one without much precedent.
Girra was a powerful figure in the metropolitan pin-ball game syndicate and had a piece of the number policy racket too.
And you know folks are always in a hurry when they're going to a ball game—especially boys.
The Tale of Pony Twinkleheels | Arthur Scott BaileyIn the Middle Ages, tennis—the oldest ball-game known—was a favorite sport of kings and of those about them.
The Stones of Paris in History and Letters, Volume I (of 2) | Benjamin Ellis MartinThis is the way the one-time cricketer and football champion viewed his first ball game.
Heroes of To-Day | Mary R. ParkmanOn the third day of December notices appeared on the bulletin board announcing the first basket ball game of the season.
Marjorie Dean College Freshman | Pauline Lester
British Dictionary definitions for ball game
any game played with a ball
US and Canadian a game of baseball
informal a situation; state of affairs (esp in the phrase a whole new ball game)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with ball game
see whole new ballgame.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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