tweener

American  

[tween-er] / ˈtwin ər /

noun

plural

tweeners

1. Sports. a player whose size or skills do not qualify them ideally for either of two positions.

2. Tennis. a stroke by a player that sends the ball between the player's own legs.

3. a thing or person that does not quite fit into either of two categories, such as light versus midsize pickup truck, tablet versus laptop, academic versus general educational stream, etc.

4. tween.

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Example Sentences

Gates still held out NBA hopes, but he was a tweener at that size, too small to play forward at the next level.

From Los Angeles Times

Aside from two mistimed overheads and an ambitious 'tweener' shot which did not have enough power to trouble her opponent, Sabalenka barely put a foot wrong as she surged to victory in just one hour and 13 minutes.

From BBC

On his serve at 3-3, he produced a trademark tweener and backed it up by putting away a sharp volley.

From BBC

Graham-Kapowsin coach Jeff Logan sees things such as the portal mostly impacting the “tweener” players, who might have once been able to find their way onto a Power Five team, but might be forced to settle for either a D-II or Group of Five school now.

From Seattle Times

He’s kind of a tweener when you think about size and ability and strength and speed, and we want to take advantage of that and use him in multiple ways.

From Seattle Times