"in the ballpark" meaning in All languages combined

See in the ballpark on Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase [English]

Etymology: An early source is the 1945 book Memoirs of a Shy Photographer by Kenneth Patchen: 1945, Kenneth Patchen, Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer, New Directions: "You're out in left field." "And you're out of the ballpark!" In context, the first speaker is suggesting the listener's perspective is fringe; which may also be the origin of the idiom "out in left field." The response keeps the baseball metaphor, and suggests the first speaker is even further fringe than themselves. In 1950, a scientific paper related to the US atomic program and/or ballistic missile development decides on a range the area of a standard baseball park as an "on target" area for a desired missile landing. Thus, a missile that lands "in the ballpark" was considered sufficiently accurate (for nuclear weapons at least). Later, in the 1960s, the term "ballpark" would be repurposed for the name of the desired landing zone for de-orbiting satellites. Etymology templates: {{quote-book|en|author=w:Kenneth Patchen|publisher=New Directions|text="You're out in left field." "And you're out of the ballpark!"|title=Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer|year=1945}} 1945, Kenneth Patchen, Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer, New Directions: "You're out in left field." "And you're out of the ballpark!" Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} in the ballpark, {{en-PP}} in the ballpark
  1. (figuratively) In the same general vicinity (as); somewhat similar (to); typically construed with of. Tags: figuratively
    Sense id: en-in_the_ballpark-en-prep_phrase-N-4P-5bu Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "author": "w:Kenneth Patchen",
        "publisher": "New Directions",
        "text": "\"You're out in left field.\" \"And you're out of the ballpark!\"",
        "title": "Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer",
        "year": "1945"
      },
      "expansion": "1945, Kenneth Patchen, Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer, New Directions:\n\"You're out in left field.\" \"And you're out of the ballpark!\"",
      "name": "quote-book"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An early source is the 1945 book Memoirs of a Shy Photographer by Kenneth Patchen:\n1945, Kenneth Patchen, Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer, New Directions:\n\"You're out in left field.\" \"And you're out of the ballpark!\"\nIn context, the first speaker is suggesting the listener's perspective is fringe; which may also be the origin of the idiom \"out in left field.\" The response keeps the baseball metaphor, and suggests the first speaker is even further fringe than themselves.\nIn 1950, a scientific paper related to the US atomic program and/or ballistic missile development decides on a range the area of a standard baseball park as an \"on target\" area for a desired missile landing. Thus, a missile that lands \"in the ballpark\" was considered sufficiently accurate (for nuclear weapons at least).\nLater, in the 1960s, the term \"ballpark\" would be repurposed for the name of the desired landing zone for de-orbiting satellites.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "in the ballpark",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "in the ballpark",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In the same general vicinity (as); somewhat similar (to); typically construed with of."
      ],
      "id": "en-in_the_ballpark-en-prep_phrase-N-4P-5bu",
      "links": [
        [
          "similar",
          "similar"
        ],
        [
          "of",
          "of#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) In the same general vicinity (as); somewhat similar (to); typically construed with of."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "in the ballpark"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "author": "w:Kenneth Patchen",
        "publisher": "New Directions",
        "text": "\"You're out in left field.\" \"And you're out of the ballpark!\"",
        "title": "Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer",
        "year": "1945"
      },
      "expansion": "1945, Kenneth Patchen, Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer, New Directions:\n\"You're out in left field.\" \"And you're out of the ballpark!\"",
      "name": "quote-book"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An early source is the 1945 book Memoirs of a Shy Photographer by Kenneth Patchen:\n1945, Kenneth Patchen, Memoirs Of a Shy Photographer, New Directions:\n\"You're out in left field.\" \"And you're out of the ballpark!\"\nIn context, the first speaker is suggesting the listener's perspective is fringe; which may also be the origin of the idiom \"out in left field.\" The response keeps the baseball metaphor, and suggests the first speaker is even further fringe than themselves.\nIn 1950, a scientific paper related to the US atomic program and/or ballistic missile development decides on a range the area of a standard baseball park as an \"on target\" area for a desired missile landing. Thus, a missile that lands \"in the ballpark\" was considered sufficiently accurate (for nuclear weapons at least).\nLater, in the 1960s, the term \"ballpark\" would be repurposed for the name of the desired landing zone for de-orbiting satellites.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "in the ballpark",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "in the ballpark",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English terms derived from baseball",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In the same general vicinity (as); somewhat similar (to); typically construed with of."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "similar",
          "similar"
        ],
        [
          "of",
          "of#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figuratively) In the same general vicinity (as); somewhat similar (to); typically construed with of."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "in the ballpark"
}

Download raw JSONL data for in the ballpark meaning in All languages combined (2.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.