balls

Formsballses, ballsing, ballsed

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of ball.

   Several balls rolled off the table during the game.

   The juggler kept five balls in the air at once.

   Note

   Every sense of ball forms its plural the same regular way, so the plural reaches well beyond toys. Mathematicians speak of balls in a metric space, knitters of balls of thread, soldiers of jacketed balls. W. S. Gilbert's HMS Pinafore has the balls whistling free o'er the bright blue sea, meaning shot. Context, not form, tells the reader which balls are meant, and in casual speech it must also rule out the anatomical slang.

2. 2
   nounvulgarcolloquialcountable

   The testicles; the male reproductive glands.

   The puck caught him square in the balls during warm-up.

   The vet checked the dog's balls before scheduling the procedure.

   Similartesticles, nuts, bollocks

   Note

   The anatomical slang sits underneath most of the word's rude figurative uses, from courage to the botched job. It is both vulgar and colloquial. It fits a locker room or a conversation between friends, but it is out of place in a clinic, a classroom or formal writing, where testicles is the safe choice. Even used jokingly, it carries the force of a swearword in polite company.

3. 3
   nounvulgarcolloquialuncountableplural

   Boldness and force of will treated as masculine courage; nerve; brazenness.

   It took serious balls to walk away from that contract on principle.

   Nobody questioned her balls after she pulled two people from the wreck.

   Similarcourage, guts, nerve, bravery, boldness

   Oppositecowardice

   Note

   Courage pictured as an anatomical possession, and grammatically a mass noun despite its plural shape. People have a lot of balls or the balls to do something, never many balls, and it can take a singular verb: balls is all that it takes. It is not reserved for men. In Graham Linehan's The IT Crowd (2007), Douglas admires it in a woman. It is vulgar enough to keep out of formal praise.

4. 4
   nounvulgardialectalCommonwealthHawaiiIrelandUKuncountableplural

   Nonsense; foolish or untrue talk.

   Critics dismissed his grand theory as utter balls.

   Most of what the salesman told us about the deal turned out to be balls.

   Similarnonsense, bollocks

   Note

   Dismissive slang of the UK, Ireland, the wider Commonwealth and Hawaii, used exactly where bollocks would be: that's a load of balls. It is a mass noun, so it comes as a load of balls or as utter balls rather than in countable units. It is vulgar but common in speech, noticeably ruder than nonsense, and best kept out of anything formal.

5. 5
   nounvulgardialectalCommonwealthHawaiiIrelandUKcountableplural

   A botched job; a badly bungled piece of work.

   He made a right balls of the wedding seating plan.

   The merger turned into an expensive balls that cost several jobs.

   Similarmess, botch, hash, shambles, cock-up

   Note

   Short for balls-up, and heard in the same places as the "nonsense" meaning. Though plural in form, it behaves like a singular noun with an article. You make a balls of something, much as you would make a mess of it: don't make a balls of it. It is vulgar rather than merely colloquial, which makes it a blunt way to warn someone not to wreck a job.

6. 6
   verbslangvulgartransitive or intransitive

   To have sexual intercourse with someone.

   He balls almost anyone he meets while out on tour.

   The couple balled all weekend at the cabin.

   Similarscrew, bang, shag, bonk

   Note

   Pure slang, and vulgar, so it belongs nowhere near formal or mixed company. Its spelling collides with the present tense of ball, and ball has its own vulgar sexual sense marked US. A sentence like he balls her could therefore come from either verb, and nothing in actual use shows which one is meant.

7. 7
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of ball.

   The machine balls the raw cotton into tight bundles.

   He balls up the failed draft and tosses it toward the bin.

   Note

   The ordinary -s form of the verb ball, spelled exactly like the plural noun. It covers far more than winding yarn into a ball. Damp snow balls under skis, a furnace-heated mass is balled for rolling, and a fraternity balls an applicant, short for blackball. Keep it apart from the bravado verb, whose third-person form is ballses.

8. 8
   adverbslang

   Used before an adjective as an intensifier meaning 'very' or 'extremely'.

   The new phone is balls expensive for what it actually offers.

   It was balls hot in the kitchen all afternoon.

   Similardamn, super, very, extremely

   Note

   Slang that sits directly before an adjective and does the work of very: balls cold, balls hot. It cannot be compared or graded, so it has no stronger or weaker form. It belongs to casual speech and borrows its punch from the anatomical slang, so it is best kept for company that would not mind that echo.

9. 9
   verbvulgartransitive

   To accomplish something by speaking or acting with bold bravado.

   He balls his way through negotiations that would terrify most people.

   She simply balls the whole presentation, daring anyone to doubt her.

   Similarbluff, bluster, brazen

   Note

   Bravado turned into a verb, and nearly always followed by a path or an it. A Killing Trade (1981) sends a character ballsing his way into a mansion, and Keith Brooke's The Accord (2009) has a heartbroken man ballsing it out. The verb treats balls itself as its base, so its forms are ballses, ballsing and ballsed. Claire Farrell's Make You: Stake You #2 (2014) catches its shade: brashness covering something vulnerable.

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