balling

Pluralballings (some meanings)

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of ball.

   Workers were balling the loose cotton fibers before shipment.

   By midnight she was still balling the leftover socks into pairs.

   Note

   One spelling serves every verb sense of ball, so the surrounding words have to do the sorting. It covers workers balling yarn, wet snow balling on skis, a fraternity balling a candidate (short for blackballing) and, in vulgar US use, balling a partner. A concrete object such as wool or thread keeps the innocent reading. Without one, readers may hear the slang, which also turns up as the noun for sex.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The clumping together of small particles into balls or lumps.

   Constant stirring prevented balling of the dry ingredients.

   Excess clay in the mix led to balling throughout the soil sample.

   Similarclumping, caking, agglomeration

   Note

   Physics and metallurgy use the word as readily as cooks do. Bernhard von Cotta's The Development Law of the Earth (1875) speaks of the balling of matter through gravitation, and R. C. Buehl and his colleagues (1947) record little sticking or balling of sponge iron. It usually takes of plus whatever clumps: a balling of the shot. Henry William Spiegel (1991) stretches it, in scare quotes, to peasants clustering in villages.

3. 3
   adjectivedialectalMulticultural London English

   Alternative form of ballin'. Slang.

   With the new contract signed, the whole crew was balling.

   She looked absolutely balling rolling up in that new car.

   Note

   The full -ing spelling of a slang adjective for flashy wealth, at home in Multicultural London English. It is about showing off money, not sex, so do not confuse it with the casual-sex adjective. A crew that is balling after a big contract is living large, and like its partner sense it is never graded with more or very.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The action of winding yarn, thread, or string into a ball.

   Balling the freshly spun yarn is the last step before knitting can begin.

   A swift makes balling large skeins far quicker and tidier.

   Similarwinding

   Note

   It was a word of the textile trade before it was a knitter's word. Victorian patents, such as Roméo Villain's of 1878, describe machines built for the balling of flax, wool, cotton and silk thread. The domestic use survives as well: Sue Monk Kidd's The Book of Longings (2020) asks what manner of man helps a woman with the balling of her yarn.

5. 5
   nounslanguncountable

   Slang for sexual intercourse.

   Most of the verses are just boasts about balling and fast cars.

   The whole track glamorizes balling without a hint of consequence.

   Similarsex, screwing, banging, shagging

   Note

   Slang from African-American Vernacular English, frank enough to keep out of formal writing and mixed company. It sits comfortably beside other casual talk: Mike Marinacci's Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches (2023) quotes a man bound to his friends by "surfing and dope and balling." Like sex itself, it is used without an article. Eric Berne's line "Balling is something people do together" shows the pattern.

6. 6
   adjective

   Characterized by or involving casual sexual encounters.

   He described his college years as one long balling phase he later regretted.

   The resort had earned a reputation for its rowdy balling weekends.

   Note

   Found in front of its noun. Mario Puzo's Fools Die has a "balling broad," and Patricia J. Bush's Drugs, Alcohol, & Sex (1980) promises "a balling hot time." It cannot be graded: nothing is more balling than something else. Because it carries the meaning of the slang noun into description, the same caution about where you use it applies.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The action of curling oneself up into a rounded shape.

   An armadillo's balling is its main defense against predators.

   Cold weather triggered the snake's slow balling deep in its burrow.

   Similarcurling

   Note

   Writers apply it less to whole animals than to parts of a body. Ronnie Turner's Lies Between Us (2018) has "a balling of her hands," fists forming in fear. Medical writing uses it for a muscle bunching up, a sign that swelling can hide at a first examination and that may appear on a second. In that clinical use it names a symptom, not a deliberate movement.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   The action of wrapping or bundling something into a ball.

   Balling the spare twine kept the whole workshop tidy.

   Careful balling of the fishing net prevented endless tangles later.

   Similarbundling, winding

9. 9
   noununcountable

   The act or process of demolishing a structure using a wrecking ball.

   Balling the derelict mill drew a small crowd of onlookers.

   The contractor scheduled the balling of the warehouse for early morning.

   Similardemolition, wrecking

   Note

   Demolition shorthand, usually heard in the phrase by balling or as the modifier in balling machine. Construction Craftsman reported in 1964 that city codes could forbid demolishing buildings by balling. L. S. Blake's Civil Engineer's Reference Book (1994) notes that roofs may need removing by hand first, or storeys taken off, to bring a building within a balling machine's capacity.

10. 10
    noununcountable

    The act of cutting a tree's roots about six inches from the stem and wrapping the roots and soil in a sack tied with twine.

    Balling the birch in autumn gave its roots time to settle before the first frost.

    The nursery charged extra for balling, since it kept the tree alive through the move.

    Note

    The nursery trade's word, and it has compounds of its own. Sheldon A. Mix reported in Popular Mechanics (1960) that a Minnesota nurseryman's hydraulic balling machine had eliminated hand-balling. The method depends on soil moisture. America's Garden Book warns that earth that is too dry will crack away from the roots during balling or while the tree is being moved.

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