football
Americannoun
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footballs
plural
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a game in which two opposing teams of 11 players each defend goals at opposite ends of a field having goal posts at each end, with points being scored chiefly by carrying the ball across the opponent's goal line and by place-kicking or drop-kicking the ball over the crossbar between the opponent's goal posts.
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the ball used in this game, an inflated oval with a bladder contained in a casing usually made of leather.
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Chiefly British. Rugby.
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Chiefly British. soccer.
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something sold at a reduced or special price.
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any person or thing treated roughly or tossed about.
They're making a political football of this issue.
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(initial capital letter) a briefcase containing the codes and options the president would use to launch a nuclear attack, carried by a military aide and kept available to the president at all times.
verb (used with object)
noun
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any of various games played with a round or oval ball and usually based on two teams competing to kick, head, carry, or otherwise propel the ball into each other's goal, territory, etc See association football rugby Australian Rules American football Gaelic football
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( as modifier )
a football ground
a football supporter
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the ball used in any of these games or their variants
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a problem, issue, etc, that is continually passed from one group or person to another and treated as a pretext for argument instead of being resolved
he accused the government of using the strike as a political football
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of football
First recorded in 1350–1400, football is from Middle English fut ball. See foot, ball 1
Explanation
Football is a sport. American football is played with an oval ball and the football players tackle each other. In the rest of the world, football is actually soccer. A football also refers to the ball itself. Football is a game in which players, wearing helmets and protective padding, run while holding the ball and pass by throwing it to teammates, and occasionally try to kick the ball through the goalposts. Players also smash into each other, hence the helmets and padding. Soccer, also known as football, involves players kicking the ball with their feet — only the goalkeeper can touch it with her hands. In both sports, at some point a foot hits the ball.
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.
See Examples For:
Palos Verdes and Sierra Canyon came away with football victories against teams from Florida on Thursday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Maccani, she said, had been a star prep football player and a college graduate — not a transient as he had been depicted in some early police accounts and news reports.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
The finest season of Delap's career to date was undoubtedly his first of regular football at the highest level.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Thirty-five years later, teaching the art and science of running into people as fast as possible is how Golesh makes his living as the new head football coach at Auburn.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Later in the afternoon, the kids were all outside playing football.
From "The World According to Humphrey" by Betty G. Birney
He’s been fed hundreds of footballs from a Jugs machine to develop hands that don’t drop passes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The smell of rubbish hangs heavy in the air as pickup trucks and handcarts crawl through narrow alleyways, unloading the day's collections while children weave between them chasing footballs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026
Long before the World Cup kicked off, U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino wasn’t shy about setting extraordinarily high expectations for a country that believes footballs are oblong.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
The people waiting outside our ports of entry are not footballs stopped at the 1-yard line, letters suspended in a mail carrier’s hand, or dinner guests lingering on a porch.
From Slate ● Jun. 26, 2026
There are beds of squash, root vegetables Sergio calls yucca, and a tree with big green fruit that looks like spiky footballs.
From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya
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.
