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definitions

body English

noun Sports.

a twisting of the body by a player as if to help a ball already hit, rolled, or kicked to travel in the desired direction.

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RELATED WORDS

act, gesture, passage, stream, agitation, fluctuation, move, sweep, sign, tendency, oscillation, gesticulation, travel, mobility, progress, stir, inclination, direction, wavering, drift

Origin of body English

First recorded in 1905–10
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Idioms and Phrases with body english

body English

Movements of the body that express a person's feelings, as in His body English tells us just how tired he is. This expression originated about 1900 in such sports as bowling and ice hockey, where a player tries to influence the path of a ball or puck by moving his body in a particular direction. (It was based on the earlier use of English to mean “spin imparted to a ball.”)

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.