balled

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of ball.

   The cat balled itself up in the corner of the sofa.

   She balled the dough before placing each piece on the tray.

   Note

   One spelling does both jobs, so had balled and was balled look exactly like the plain past. The form carries every sense of the verb, which makes context decisive: snow that balled under skis, a pledge balled by a fraternity (short for blackballed), or a vulgar US use for sex. A cat balled up or dough balled by hand is safe; elsewhere, think about which reading a listener will hear.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Having balls of a specified kind or number, as marked by a preceding modifier.

   Engineers redesigned the four-balled joint to reduce friction.

   The double-balled pendulum swung in a surprisingly complex pattern.

   Note

   A combining form that never stands on its own: a hyphenated first element does the describing. Machinery uses it neutrally, as in the three-balled governor of a steam engine in Paul Corey's Three Miles Square (1939). Hairy-balled and big-balled point instead to anatomy and carry a crude, swaggering tone. The first element tells the reader which world they are in, so choose it with the audience in mind.

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