Forms: 3–7 bal, 4–6 balle, 6 baule, bawle, 5– ball. [ME. bal (inflected ball(e, -es), a. ON. böllr (pron. bǫllr; cf. OSw. baller, Sw. båll):—OTeut. *ballu-z, (whence probably MHG. bal, ball-es, MDu. bal). Cogn. with OHG. ballo, pallo, MHG. balle:—OTeut. *ballon (wk. masc.), and OHG. ballâ, pallâ, MHG. balle:—OTeut. *ballôn (wk. fem.). No OE. representative of any of these is known. (The answering forms in OE. would have been *beallu, -a, -e: cf. bealluc, BALLOCK.) If ball- was native in Teutonic, it may have been cognate with L. foll-is in sense of a ‘thing blown up or inflated.’ In the later ME. spelling balle, the word coincided graphically with F. balle ‘ball’ and ‘bale,’ which has hence been erroneously assumed to be its source. Cf. BALE sb.3]
I. A globe or globular body.
1. generally.
a. 1300. Fragm. 89, in Wright, Pop. Sc., 134. As me mai bi a candle i-seo, that is bisides a balle, That ȝeveth liȝt on hire halvendel.
c. 1340. Cursor M. (Fairf.), 521. His heued ys rouned as a balle.
1340. Ayenb., 179. Þe þyer … þrauþ þane little bal in-to þe hondes þrote þet he ne ssel naȝt berke.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1756. He rolleth vnder foot as dooth a bal.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. lxxx. (1495), 579. Wyth balles of leed men assaye depnesse.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 167. Turned into a round heauie baule.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 696. The Wormes with many feet which round themselves into Balls.
1716–8. Lady Montague, Lett., 38. I. 150. The … tents … are adorned on the top with guilded balls.
1824. Landor, Imag. Conv., xvii. Wks. 1846, I. 107. A ball must strike the earth before it can rebound.
1831. Blakey, Free-will, 151. To attend to them all at one time as jugglers do with their balls.
1878. Mrs. H. Wood, Pomeroy Ab., 242. A short, stout ball of a woman.
2. spec. Any planetary or celestial body, esp. the earth, ‘the globe.’ Now always with qualification, ‘terrestrial,’ ‘earthly,’ etc.
a. 1300. Fragm. 255, in Wright, Pop. Sc., 137. Urthe is amidde the see a lute bal and round.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Acts xvii. 24 (R.). The heauenly balles and circles aboue.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. ii. 41. From vnder this Terrestrial Ball.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Eclog., vi. 52. This goodly Ball.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 465. What, though in solemn silence all Move round the dark terrestrial ball.
1717. Pope, Elegy Unfort. Lady, 35. If eternal Justice rules the ball.
1834. Tennyson, Two Voices, 35. No compound of this earthly ball.
† 3. The golden ‘orb’ borne together with the scepter as the emblem of sovereignty. Obs.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), (Mor. Wisd.), i. Argt. In his left hand a ball of gold with a crosse þer-vpon.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. i. 277. The Scepter, and the Ball, the Sword, the Mase, the Crowne Imperiall.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 149. A young Man, that … ought to hold in his hand the Ball of a Kingdome.
1715. Pope, Ep. Miss Blount. Thus vanish sceptres, coronets, and balls.
4. A globular body to play with, which is thrown, kicked, knocked, or batted about, in various games, as hand-ball, foot-ball, tennis, golf, cricket, croquet, billiards, etc. It varies greatly in size and material according to the game.
(This was perhaps the earliest sense in English.)
c. 1205. Lay., 24703. Summe heo driuen balles wide ȝeond þa feldes.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 2004. With that bal togider they plaid.
c. 1340. Cursor M. (Fairf.), 13139. His broþer doghter … come playand hir wiþ a balle.
1483. Cath. Angl., 19/1. Balle, pila.
1530. Palsgr., 196/2. Ball to play at tennes with—estevf.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 35. Thou hast striken the ball, vnder the lyne.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 261. When we haue matcht our Rackets to these Balles.
1611. Bible, Isa. xxii. 18. He will surely … tosse thee like a ball.
1721. Bailey, Cricket, a sort of Play with Bats and a Ball.
1807. Crabbe, Village, I. Wks. 1823, I. 26. The flying ball, The bat, the wicket, were his labours all.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. 58/2. The ball flies off his bat to all parts of the field.
See also BILLIARD-, CRICKET-, FOOT-BALL, etc.
b. A game played with a ball; also an annual contest at hand-ball, played on a holiday in most of the towns and villages on the Scottish Border.
c. 1350. Life of Cuthbert, in Strutt, Sports & Past., II. iii. He pleyde atte balle with the Children that his fellowes were.
1598. Stow, Survey, 68. After dinner all the youthes goe into the fieldes to play at the ball.
1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scoft, 50. To play at Cat, at Trap, or Ball.
1831. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. 45. (Article) The game of Ball as played in Dunse on Fastern’s Eve.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, III. 199. Quoit, tennis, ball—no games?
c. A throw, toss or ‘delivery’ of the ball in certain games, esp. in Cricket, the particulars of its course and effect being included in the notion. No ball in Cricket, one unfairly bowled; wide ball, one not properly within the batsman’s reach.
1483. Cath. Angl., 19. Balle. alipatus qui iaculatur pilam.
1773. Gentl. Mag., Nov., 568. The modern way Of blocking every ball at play.
1819. Miss Mitford, Village (1848), I. 177. That brilliant hitter … gained eight from two successive balls.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., vii. He blocked the doubtful balls, missed the bad ones, took the good ones.
1850. Cricket Manual, 54. The names of the bowlers who bowl ‘wide balls’ or ‘no balls’ … to be placed on the score.
5. A missile (originally always spherical, now also conical or cylindrical with convex top) projected from an engine of war, in early times from catapults and crossbows, and now from cannons, muskets, pistols, and other fire-arms. In artillery, a solid as distinguished from a hollow projectile; these are of iron, but formerly were often of stone; the balls fired from small-arms are also called bullets, and are made of lead.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 297. Þe men of þat lond … vseþ balles and alblastres.
1588. Ord. King’s Fleet, in Harl. Misc. (1810), I. 118. The artillery … being all charged with their balls.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., V. ii. 17. The fatall Balls of murthering Basiliskes.
a. 1631. Donne, Epigr. (1652), 100. Threatening balls in showres of murther fly.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 518. Mineral and Stone … to found their Engins and their Balls Of missive ruin.
1692. Diary Siege Lymerick, 28. March out with their Arms, Baggage, Drums beating, Ball in Mouth … Colours flying.
1718. Lady Montagu, Lett., 49, II. 58. Tombs of fine marble … daily lessened by the prodigious balls that the Turks make from them for their cannon.
1812. Examiner, 19 Oct., 659/1. More than 600,000 balls and shells.
1858. W. Ellis, Vis. Madagascar, xii. 330. A round stone, like a large cannon-ball.
b. collectively.
1584. Sanders, in Arb., Garner, II. 16. The King had discharged three shots without ball.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4702/2. The Powder, small Ball, and small Arms remaining in the Garrisons.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 479. A body of troops … was ordered to load with ball.
6. Pyrotechny and Mil. A globular case or shell filled with combustibles, intended to set buildings on fire, or to give light, smoke, etc.; e.g., fire-balls, smoke-balls, stink-balls.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Smoak, or dark Balls … fill the air with smoak, and … prevent discoveries. Sky Balls … bursting like rockets, afford a spectacle of decoration.
7. A globular body of wood, ivory, or other substance, used in voting by BALLOT (q.v.), each voter being provided with one black and one white. Hence to black-ball, q.v.
1580. North, Plutarch (1656), 927. The Judges … would never take their bals to ballot against him.
1620. Reliq. Wotton. (1672), 309. In the first Ballotation … the Balls were equal.
1690. Dryden, Don Sebastian, I. (J.).
| For ev’ry number’d Captive put a ball | |
| Into an Urn; three only black be there, | |
| The rest, all white, are safe. |
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4543/1. They took a Boy to draw the Balls.
1884. C. Dickens, Dict. Lond., 25/1. One black ball in three excludes.
† 8. In the phrase ball in the hood, applied in grim humor to the head (partly fig. from 4). Obs.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 6481. Mony of his knyghtis gode Loren theo balles in heore hode.
c. 1325. Cœur de L., 4523. Men of armes the swerdes outbreyde; Balles out of hoodes, soone they pleyde.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 17. I shrew thi balle under thi hode.
c. 1500. Rob. Hood (Ritson), i. 1454. He ne shall lese his hede, That is the best ball in his hode.
9. Ball of the eye: a. orig. the ‘apple’ or pupil; b. now, the eye itself within the lids and socket.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 21. Balle of þe ye, Pupilla.
1530. Palsgr., 196/2. Ball, of the eye, La prunelle de loyl.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 157. The balles of his eyes shall see nought but darknesse.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. ii. 117. Riding on the bals of mine [eies].
1671. Milton, Samson, 94. Such a tender ball as the eye.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 145, ¶ 2. The Balls of Sight are so form’d, that one Man’s Eyes are Spectacles to another to read his Heart with.
1808. Scott, Marm., II. xxii. Raising his sightless balls to heaven.
1870. Bryant, Homer, XIV. II. 71. Him Peneleus smote … In the eye’s socket, forcing out the ball.
II. A globular or rounded mass of material.
10. A globular or rounded mass of any substance. a. gen. (cf. SNOWBALL).
c. 1205. Lay., 17443. Nu ȝe maȝen heom habben swulche veðerene balles.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2003. Ballis … Of wex and tow.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., III. i. 199. With two pitch bals stucke in her face for eyes.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., Wks. 1869, II. 328. Balls of cowslips, daisie rings.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict., A musk ball, or sweet ball, Pastillus.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 204. A living ball of Crabs.
b. spec. A spherical piece of soap. (Not now used specifically).
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T. (1613), 25. As a Barber wasteth his Ball in the water.
1611. Bible, Susanna i. 17. Then she said to her maids, bring me oil & washinge balls.
1624. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, III. i. 286. Balls … to wash out your stains.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), Mattiacæ pilæ … soap-balls, washing-balls.
c. A globular mass formed by winding thread, a clew or clue. L. glomus.
1572. J. Jones, Bathe Buckstone, 12 b. The wind baule, or yarne ball.
1841. Marryat, Poacher, xv. You had a ball of twine.
1884. Black, in Harper’s Mag., May, 951/1. She got her knitting-needles and a ball of wool.
11. Med. A bolus; medicine in the form of a ball or large pill. Now only in Veterinary Medicine.
1576. Earl Oxford, Love Quest., in Fuller, Worthies, IV. (1872), 58. His bitter ball is sugred blisse.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5831/4. The Cordial Horse-Balls, at 4s. per Pound.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., We meet with balls for the tooth-ach.
1877. ‘Stonehenge,’ Horse, xxxii. 581. Medicine may be given to the horse … in the solid form as a ball.
12. (from F. balle) A rounded package, a BALE.
1583. J. Newbery, in Arb., Garner, III. 172. Hath sent you in the Emanuel a ball of Nutmegs.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xxxvii. Seven balls of bullets [sept balles de boullets] at a dozen the ball.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 389. Fifteen balls of rosemary, the ball weighing 750 pounds.
III. Objects or parts with rounded outline.
13. A kind of small cushion, leather-covered or formed of composition, used by printers for inking the type. Now superseded by the roller.
1611. Cotgr., Pompette d’imprimeur, a Printers Pumpet-ball … wherewith hee beates, or layes Inke on, the Formes.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Ball among Printers a kind of wooden tunnel stuffed with wool, contained in a cover of sheep’s skin … with which the ink is applied.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 531. About the year 1815, composition balls were introduced at Weybridge.
1830. Edin. Encycl., XIII. 46. When the printing balls are applied, the ink is received by the oiled parts of the stone.
14. A spherical or rounded part of various machines; e.g., the ball of a harrow; of a cart-wheel (the nave or hub); of a pendulum (the bob).
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (1856), 107. These rammers are made of old everinges, harrowe balls, or such like thinges as have holes.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 199. The ball of a Cart-wheel; arbuscula.
15. Any rounded protuberant part of the body; now chiefly applied to those at the base of the thumb and great toe; formerly, also a callosity on the hand or foot.
1483. Cath. Angl., 19/1. A Balle of þe hand or of fote, callus.
1530. Palsgr., 196/2. Ball of the cheke, pommeav de la jove.
1547. Act. 1 Edw. VI., iii. § 2. Such Slaue, or loiterer to bee marked on the … ball of the cheeke with an hot iron.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., IV. xx. 97. Beating Balles, her vained breasts.
1752. Carte, Hist. Eng., III. 542. The women painted about the eyes and the Balls of the cheeks with an azure colour.
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 14. The recruit brings the ball of the right foot to the left heel.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 22. Large muscle which forms the ball of the thumb.
16. The central hollow of the palm of the hand or sole of the foot (obs.); the central part of an animal’s foot.
1601. Dent, Path-w. Heaven, 242. Some men … will easilie feele the lightest feather … laide vpon the ball of their hands.
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 133. The pinne groweth in the bales of the feet of vnquiet Hawkes.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 120. They … hold one end of it down with the Ball of the Foot.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Ball of the foot of a dog is the prominent part of the middle of the foot.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict. (Morell), Ball of the hand, Palma. Ball of the foot, Planta pedis.
17. Ball of a pillar in Arch.: the scotia, a hollow molding between the fillets in the base of a pillar or column.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict., Ball of a pillar, scotia.
IV. Phrases and phraseological combinations.
18. fig. from games, football, tennis, etc.:—To catch or take the ball before the bound: to anticipate an opportunity. To have the ball at one’s foot or before one: to have a thing in one’s power. To keep the ball up or rolling: to keep the conversation or an undertaking from flagging. To take up the ball: to take one’s turn in conversation, etc. The ball is with you: it is your turn.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xix. We do preuent them … and do catch the ball (as they are wont to say) before it come to the ground.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett., IV. ix. It concerns you not to be over-hasty herein, not to take the Ball before the Bound.
c. 1661. Papers on Alterat. Prayer-bk., 24. You have the ball before you, and have the wind and sun, and the power of contending without controll.
1781. Bentham, To G. Wilson, Wks. 1843, X. 104. I put a word in now and then to keep the ball up.
c. 1800. Ld. Auckland, Corr. (1862), III. 416. We have the ball at our feet, and if the Government will allow us … the rebellion will be crushed.
1809. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., V. 365. If the Spaniards had not lost two armies lately, we should keep up the ball for another year.
1878. Geo. Eliot, Coll. Breakf. P., 345. Louder Rosencranz Took up the ball.
19. Ball and Socket (joint): a joint formed of a ball or rounded extremity partly enclosed in a cup or socket, which thus has great freedom of play combined with strength.
1669. Boyle, Contn. New Exp., I. xxii. 74. This travailing Baroscope being furnished at its upper end with a very good Ball and Socket.
1741. Monro, Anat., 42. Enarthrosis, or the Ball and Socket … when a large Head is received into a deep Cavity.
1809. Home, in Phil. Trans., XCIX. 182. There is a regular ball and socket joint between every two vertebræ.
1863. Mrs. C. Clarke, Shaks. Char., 159. By … impenetrable assurance, and a ball-and-socket morality.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 33. Ball and socket articulation.
20. Three (golden) balls: the sign of a pawnbroker; supposed by some to be derived from the ensign of the wealthy Medici family.
a. 1845. Hood, Pawning Watch, ix. I’ve gone to a dance for my supper; And now I must go to Three Balls!
1861. Sala, Tw. round Clock, 180. The brethren of the three golden balls.
V. Comb. 21. General combinations, mostly attrib. (in various senses), as ball-alley, -court, -firing, -green, -ground, -play, -player, -practice; also the adjs. ball-proof, -piled, -shaped.
1805. Englishm. Mag., Oct., 313. Ball-alleys and racquet-courts were the exception.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 17. The Ball-Court at Corpus Christi Coll.
1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., 179. The old ball-court, where I have had many a game at fives.
1833. Regul. Instr. Cavalry, I. 31. Ball Firing … at a target.
1657. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 19. Making a ball-green on his chin; As trees do sometime in a wood.
1884. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 297/2. The new wards in Westchester offer fairly cheap sites for ball-grounds and race-tracks.
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 218. Iðe uorme ȝeres nis hit bute bal-pleouwe.
1855. Longf., Hiaw., xi. 62. Skilled … in the play of quoits and ball-play.
1619. Sanderson, Serm., I. 7. As ball-players with the ball. When the ball is once up, they labour to keep it up.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxi. A regimental target set up for ball practice.
1854. Owen, in Circ. Sc., II. 45/2. The ball-proof character of the skin.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. li. The ball-piled pyramid.
1884. J. Colborne, With Hicks Pasha, 241. Round ball-shaped boxes.
22. Special combinations: ball-bearing(s, a mechanical contrivance for lessening friction by means of small loose metal balls, used for the bearings of axles; † ball-bellows, a hollow metal ball formerly used for producing a steam blast; ball-cartridge, a gun-, or pistol-cartridge containing a bullet; ball-clay, very adhesive clay, as that brought up in lumps sticking to a ship’s anchor; ball-cock, a self-regulating cistern-tap turned off and on by the rising or falling of a hollow ball floating on the surface of the liquid; ball-drawer, an instrument for extracting balls from fire-arms; ball-flower (Arch.), an ornament like a ball enclosed within three or four petals of a flower, often inserted in a hollow molding; ball-mine, a kind of iron-ore found in rounded lumps or nodules; ball-stamp, an American ore-crushing machine; ball-stock, the stock or handle of a printer’s ball; ball-stone, a rounded lump of ironstone or limestone; ball-tap (= ball-cock); ball-thistle, the Globe Thistle, also a species of Echinops; ball-valve, a valve opened or closed by the rising or falling of a ball which exactly fits a cup-shaped opening in the seat; † ball-vein, a kind of iron ore in nodules formerly worked in Sussex; ball-weed, knapweed (Centaurea nigra).
1883. Knowledge, 3 Aug., 76/1. Three machines … with *ball-bearings.
1634. T. Johnson, trans. Parey’s Chirurg., XI. (1678), 276. *Ball-bellows … made of Brass in form of a Pear, with a very small hole in their lesser ends.
1803. Ld. Colchester, Diary & Corr., I. 451. A quantity of pikes, of *ball-cartridges and of combustibles.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 399. The captain … ordered the marines to load with ball-cartridge.
1811. Agric. Surv. Ayrsh., 4 (Jam.). If steril and adhesive, it is sometimes termed strong as *ball-clay.
1876. Knight’s Pract. Dict. Mech., I. 558/1. A house-service pipe a, provided with a *ball-cock b, [etc.].
1844. Regul. & Ord. Army, 96. One *Ball-drawer to each Rifle.
1845. Archæol. Jrnl., I. 100. The Chapel in Marten’s tower with its *ball-flower moulding.
1862. Archæol., XXXIX. 182. The ball-flower pattern … carries down the building so late as 1340.
1702. in Phil. Trans., XXIII. 1072. A sort of Iron Stone, akin to that which they call in Staffordshire Ballmine.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Ball-Stamp, a stamp for crushing rock, operated directly by steam power.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, vi. 116. The *ballstones … being more crystalline than the nodules.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, II. cccclxxviii. (1633), 1152. Carduus eriocephalus … is called in English, Globe Thistle, and *Ball-Thistle.
1839. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., III. 631/2. A mechanical office somewhat on the principle of the *ball-valve.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Ball-vein … a name given by the miners in Sussex to a sort of iron ore.
