Search the Dictionary

A missile weapon, particularly a ball or bullet; specifically, whatever is discharged as a projectile from firearms or cannon by the force of an explosive.

es. Skittle alley, an alley or court in which the game of skittles is played. -- Skittle ball, a disk or flattish ball of wood for throwing at the pins in the game of skittles.

English game resembling ninepins, but played by throwing wooden disks, instead of rolling balls, at the pins.

To throw towards the sky; as, to sky a ball at cricket. [Colloq.]

se when drawing a slegh, or to the sleigh itself; especially a globular bell with a loose ball which plays inside instead of a clapper.

A ball game, esp. a baseball game, in which there is much hard hitting of the ball. [Slang, U. S.]

imp. & p. p. of Sling. Slung shot, a metal ball of small size, with a string attached, used by ruffians for striking.

Fine clay or ocher made up into balls, used for marking sheep. [Eng.] Woodsward.

To project with a snap. To snap back (Football), to roll the ball back with the foot; -- done only by the center rush, who thus delivers the ball to the quarter back on his own side when both sides are ranged in line. -- To snap off. (a) To break suddenly. (b) To bite off suddenly.

A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; -- called also grub. [Cant] R. A. Proctor.

A slight hit or tip of the ball, often unintentional.

ng or place which receives and holds something else; as, the sockets of the teeth. His eyeballs in their hollow sockets sink. Dryden.

; -- applied to many games of cards, etc.; also, to a game played on a board with pegs or balls, in which the object is, beginning with all the places filled except one, to remove all but one of the pieces by "jumping," as in draughts.

A lyrical poem adapted to vocal music; a ballad.

Exhausted of spawn or sperm; -- said especially of fishes. Spent ball, a ball shot from a firearm, which reaches an object without having sufficient force to penetrate it.

A mass or ball of cells formed by the repeated division of a male germinal cell (spermospore), each constituent cell (spermoblast) of which is converted into a spermatozoid; a spermatogemma.

hat objects, as keys, may be strung upon the ring or removed from it. -- Split ticket, a ballot containing the names of only a portion of the candidates regularly nominated by one party, other names being substituted for those omitted. [U.S.]

a shot or stroke in which one drives in different directions one's own and the opponent's ball placed in contact.

things of the same kind, or in scattered instances; separate; single; as, a sporadic fireball; a sporadic case of disease; a sporadic example of a flower. Sporadic disease (Med.), a disease which occurs in single and scattered cases. See the Note under Endemic, a.

The pocketing of the red ball in a top corner pocket from off its own spot so as to leave the cue ball in position for an easy winning hazard in either top corner pocket.