<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>a spherical or approximately spherical body or shape; sphere.</li><li>a round or roundish body, of various sizes and materials, either hollow or solid, for use in games, as baseball, football, tennis, or golf.</li><li>a game played with a ball, especially baseball.</li><li>a pitched ball, not swung at by the batter, that does not pass over home plate between the batter's shoulders and knees.</li><li>a solid, usually spherical projectile for a cannon, rifle, pistol, etc., as distinguished from a shell.</li><li>projectiles, especially bullets, collectively.</li><li>any part of a thing, especially of the human body, that is rounded or protuberant; the ball of the thumb.</li><li>a round mass of food, as of chopped meat, dough, or candy.</li><li>Slang: a testicle.</li><li>Slang: boldness; courage; brashness.</li><li>nonsense (often used as an interjection).</li><li>horticulture: a compact mass of soil covering the roots of an uprooted tree or other plant.</li><li>literary: a planetary or celestial body, especially the earth.</li><li>mathematics: (in a metric space) the set of points whose distance from the zero element is less than, or less than or equal to, a specified number.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>to make into a ball (sometimes followed by up): The children were balling up snow to make a snowman.</li><li>to wind into balls: to ball cotton.</li><li>Slang: to have sexual intercourse with.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object)</strong></p><ul><li>to form or gather into a ball: When the spun sugar balls, the candy has cooked sufficiently.</li><li>to play basketball: There’s no doubt the kid can ball, but the recruiters are also aware that he’s barely passing his math and science classes.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb Phrase</strong></p><ul><li>Slang: to make or become utterly confused; muddle: The records had been all balled up by inefficient file clerks.</li></ul>