noun 1.a game, popular in the 17th century, in
which a ball of boxwood was struck with a mallet in an attempt to drive it through a raised iron ring at the end of a playing alley.
2.a playing alley on which this game was played.
Origin: 1560–70; <
Middle French pallemaille <
Italian pallamaglio, equivalent to
palla ball (<
Langobardic) +
maglio mallet (<
Latin malleus). See
ball1,
mall,
mell