juggle
Americanverb (used with object)
-
juggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
juggled,
past participle, past
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juggling
present participle
-
to keep (several objects, as balls, plates, tenpins, or knives) in continuous motion in the air simultaneously by tossing and catching.
-
to hold, catch, carry, or balance precariously; almost drop and then catch hold again.
The center fielder juggled the ball but finally made the catch.
-
to alter or manipulate in order to deceive, as by subterfuge or trickery.
to juggle the business accounts; to juggle the facts.
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to manage or alternate the requirements of (two or more tasks, responsibilities, activities, etc.) so as to handle each adequately.
to juggle the obligations of job and school.
verb (used without object)
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juggles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
juggled,
past participle, past
-
juggling
present participle
-
to perform feats of manual or bodily dexterity, as tossing up and keeping in continuous motion a number of balls, plates, knives, etc.
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to use artifice or trickery.
noun
verb
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to throw and catch (several objects) continuously so that most are in the air all the time, as an entertainment
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to arrange or manipulate (facts, figures, etc) so as to give a false or misleading picture
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(tr) to keep (several activities) in progress, esp with difficulty
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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jugglesimple
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jugglessimple
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have juggledperfect
-
has juggledperfect
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am jugglingprogressive
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are jugglingprogressive
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is jugglingprogressive
-
have been jugglingperfect progressive
-
has been jugglingperfect progressive
Past
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juggledsimple
-
had juggledperfect
-
was jugglingprogressive
-
were jugglingprogressive
-
had been jugglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of juggle
1350–1400; Middle English jog ( e ) len < Old French jogler to serve as buffoon or jester < Late Latin joculāre to joke (replacing Latin joculārī ), equivalent to Latin jocul ( us ) ( joc ( us ) joke + -ulus -ule ) + -āre infinitive suffix
Explanation
To juggle is to toss several items in the air and keep them moving from hand to hand, with at least one of them suspended at any given moment. Most beginners learn to juggle using balls or beanbags, not knives. A skilled juggler can juggle stuffed animals or oranges, or even knives and flaming torches. It's also possible to figuratively juggle, like when you juggle three jobs at once or juggle your responsibilities as a student, pet owner, and friend. In these examples, you manage several things at the same time. Juggle comes from the Old French jogler, "play tricks or sing songs," from the Latin root ioculari, "to jest."
Vocabulary lists containing juggle
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Mid-Air
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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:
The HBO Max series sees Horgan's character, Alex, gamely attempting to juggle a stressful publishing career while looking after a teenage son and elderly parents.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
The mental load is a popular topic on forums like Reddit and Mumsnet, where women seek advice about how to talk to their partners about the exhaustion of trying to juggle so many different responsibilities.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
How do you delegate the tasks you formerly did, lead former peers and juggle increased responsibilities?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
The workers often juggle multiple aliases simultaneously, and can hold down several jobs under each stolen name.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Tab’s longest continuous juggle lasted about thirty seconds.
From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead
Instead, she has been applying for part-time jobs to chip away at her $101,000 student-loan balance, which she juggles on top of her mortgage payments and other costs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Chip falls in with a troupe of street performers, evades the police, juggles along the Seine and eventually wanders into a smoky bar, where Penelope is strumming her guitar.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
The Welshman juggles his day job as a carpenter with the demands of a sport so visibly brutal it has stayed in the shadows of combat sports for much of its existence.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2026
It juggles an abundant balance sheet, short-term funding markets, bank supervision and stress tests, and a fast-growing but opaque private-credit complex.
From Barron's ● Dec. 10, 2025
Next to him, a wiry man in a tattered suit juggles two oranges and a grapefruit.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
“Katie Zacharia had less than 24 hours to prepare for her inaugural briefing, as she juggled a cross-country move, and only received briefing materials this morning,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2026
He has also juggled other jobs, including lecturing and editing highlights of football matches for YouTube channels, with money raised going back into Premature.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
For a couple of years, Trinidad juggled barber college, work at FedEx and missionary work through his L.A. church, Iglesia De Jesucristo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
At first, she juggled classes with Fusion Books, an online platform she’d started to help students to create and design yearbooks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Tab juggled, not all that well, but a lot better than most people.
From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead
When he demonstrated his juggling for the BBC, he struggled to find the rhythm.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
There was the time, for instance, when a friend was mulling over a family challenge, and I thought I had the absolute perfect solution for juggling her personal desires with her caregiving commitments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
This year was Ohtani’s first juggling full two-way duties from the start of the season since joining the Dodgers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Wall Street’s age-old structural paradox is back in the spotlight: juggling conflicts of interest between sell-side research analysts and their employers’ dealmaking businesses.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
“It’s all a kind of. . . balancing act. A juggling of pins, all kinds of pins, that’s what journalism is about.”
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
