stoop ball

American  

noun

1. a game resembling baseball, played in a street, schoolyard, or other confined paved area, in which a ball is thrown forcibly against a stairway or wall so that it rebounds into the air, bases and runs being awarded depending on the number of bounces the ball takes before being caught by the opposing player or team.

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Etymology

Origin of stoop ball

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

Anyone who chooses to live in the Village opts for the extremes of city life — squalor and elegance; beauty and danger; stoop ball and art show.

From Time Magazine Archive

Ahead was a gang playing stoop ball, blocking her way.

From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord

We even changed the rules of stoop ball, of which I was the absolute King of the World, to include bases when more than one kid played.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers

You played stoop ball by throwing the ball against the steps of a brownstone.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers

I would play basketball in the mornings with the boys who were just reaching their teens, and then stoop ball or punchball on the block with boys my age.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers