ball game
or ball·game
noun
any game played with a ball, especially baseball or softball.
Informal. a situation and all its attendant circumstances: Having a new administration in power changes the entire ball game at city hall.Compare new ball game.
Archaeology. a ceremonial game of both ritual and sporting significance, played by teams on a ball court in Mesoamerican cultures from the Preclassic period to the Spanish conquest.
Nearby words
ball club, ball cock, ball control, ball fern, ball foot, ball game, ball girl, ball handling, ball hawk, ball hockey, ball ice
Origin of ball game
An Americanism dating back to 1840–50
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for ballgame
A couple of summers ago I sat with Zamperini at a ballgame at Fenway Park.
Met him on the D train going to Yankee Stadium one day and spent that afternoon watching a ballgame with him in the press box.
The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis|Richard Ben Cramer|January 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST“The ballgame is a little different” in Pakistan, he continued.
He said, "I have an undershirt on today," it was at some ballgame.
Warren Commission (2 of 26): Hearings Vol. II (of 15)|The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
British Dictionary definitions for ballgame
ball game
noun
any game played with a ball
US and Canadian a game of baseball
informal a situation; state of affairs (esp in the phrase a whole new ball game)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Idioms and Phrases with ballgame
ballgame
see whole new ballgame.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.