juggle
Americanverb (used with object)
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to keep (several objects, as balls, plates, tenpins, or knives) in continuous motion in the air simultaneously by tossing and catching.
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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.
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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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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
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has juggledperfect
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am jugglingprogressive
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are jugglingprogressive
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is jugglingprogressive
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have been jugglingperfect progressive
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has been jugglingperfect progressive
Past
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juggledsimple
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had juggledperfect
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was jugglingprogressive
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were jugglingprogressive
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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
World Cup Vocabulary
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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:
Chronic fatigue has become increasingly common in modern life as people juggle heavier workloads and less downtime.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2026
“There are points where it’s really difficult to juggle all this and still have a normal social life,” Contreras said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
I figured I could juggle both or keep the better option.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Reflecting that political juggle, NextEra and Dominion are proposing to give $2.25 billion in bill credits to customers to sweeten the deal with federal and state regulators.
From MarketWatch ● May 18, 2026
Here people walked fast to juggle the dimes, to make a deal, to find cheap liver or a tomato that was overripe.
From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
Darren juggles this with his job as a hospitality manager while Amanda left her job to look after her.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026
However, Paine believes that even with the hard work and multiple projects the team juggles, the grandeur of the Oscars makes it “special to be part of.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2026
The late nights are partly because he juggles several jobs as the marketing director of a ski resort in Utah and a hotel chain, plus a one-man startup he launched this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
Chanderpaul edged a short-of-a-length ball from Jadeja to slip where KL Rahul caught it after a couple of juggles to end a 66-run second-wicket stand.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2025
Next to him, a wiry man in a tattered suit juggles two oranges and a grapefruit.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
Throughout her 20s, she juggled multiple cash-paying jobs, often working gruelling hours.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
Growing up as the youngest of nine children in a cramped council flat in Kilburn, north London, from the age of eight she juggled schoolwork and part-time jobs to earn pocket money.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
Finishing the film took a couple of years as he juggled other projects and his YouTube output.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
He spent time, he said, listening to homeowners who offered to donate their chimneys as they juggled calls to emergency agencies, insurers and contractors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
The number of juggled balls decreases until the juggler himself vanishes.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
But with few barriers to entry, the sector still attracts many workers who migrate from rural areas to cities in search of opportunity, often juggling jobs across several households in a day.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
For many of their parents, that means financial juggling to pay for those camp experiences.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
Unfortunately, the juggling of storylines ends up being more schematic than insightful.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Ibrahimovic would also post a video of himself and Henry doing some virtuoso juggling as Lalas stood idly by, the implication being that the two guys who call it football know what they’re doing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
She was probably just stressed out from working overtime, from dealing with a hard-to-please new boss, or from juggling bills, and I caught the hard end of it.
From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes
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.
