balls
Britishplural noun
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the testicles
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so as to be rendered powerless
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nonsense; rubbish
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courage; forcefulness
interjection
Usage
Both its anatomical senses and its various extended senses nowadays have far less impact than they used to, and seem unlikely to cause offence, though some older or more conservative people may object. Interestingly, its use in the sense of courage is exactly paralleled in the Spanish term «cojones»
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Today’s technology allows golf balls to fly farther.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
Buttler, who had gone 18 innings without a fifty including his difficult run at the T20 World Cup, looked closer to his best form in hitting 52 from 27 balls in Gujarat's 210-4.
From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026
There have been countless other important space-related milestones since Apollo 17, our last moon visit, but what’s more dramatic than bouncing around in one-sixth of Earth’s gravity and smacking golf balls between lunar craters?
From Salon • Apr. 7, 2026
He co-headlined with The Strokes on a lineup that also included Kings of Leon and Arcade Fire, the latter of which dropped giant light-up LED balls on the crowd as part of the performance.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 6, 2026
I felt like something ill was festering in my stomach, and my head felt like a piñata stuffed with cotton balls.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
