pinball

[ pin-bawl ]

/ ˈpɪnˌbɔl /

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noun

any of various games played on a sloping, glass-topped table presenting a field of colorful, knoblike target pins and rails, the object usually being to shoot a ball, driven by a spring, up a side passage and cause it to roll back down against these projections and through channels, which electrically flash or ring and record the score.

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Origin of pinball

An Americanism dating back to 1880–85; pin + ball¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use pinball in a sentence

One of the kids had a ball in his hand, and Cuomo took it and tossed it back and forth to an eight year old.
Mario Cuomo, Always Moving Us Toward the Light|Mike Barnicle|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Instead of going for the hole, I hit the ball directly into the water.
Lost For Thousands of Strokes: 'Desert Golfing' Is 'Angry Birds' as Modern Art|Alec Kubas-Meyer|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
There is only sand, a white ball, and a flag indicating the hole.
Lost For Thousands of Strokes: 'Desert Golfing' Is 'Angry Birds' as Modern Art|Alec Kubas-Meyer|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
If the ball gets in the hole, the screen shifts to reveal the next hole.
Lost For Thousands of Strokes: 'Desert Golfing' Is 'Angry Birds' as Modern Art|Alec Kubas-Meyer|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST

When the game starts, there is only sand, a white ball, a flag indicating hole 1, and a “0” at the top of the screen.
Lost For Thousands of Strokes: 'Desert Golfing' Is 'Angry Birds' as Modern Art|Alec Kubas-Meyer|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It was little better than coal dust, and would not carry a ball fifty paces to kill or wound.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
Though, as everybody well knew, the doctor had forbidden her to lift so much as a pin!
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories|Kate Chopin
A view of the duchess's ball-room, or of the dining-table of the earl, will supersede all occasion for lengthy fiddle-faddle.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
He had not the least idea what wadding was, and his notion of a bullet was a dockyard cannon-ball bigger than his own head.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II|Rudyard Kipling
On the night of June the 11th a red-hot cannon-ball set fire to one of the barracks which was used as a hospital.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy

British Dictionary definitions for pinball

pinball

/ (ˈpɪnˌbɔːl) /

noun

a game in which the player shoots a small ball through several hazards on a table, electrically operated machine, etc
(as modifier)a pinball machine

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