"Hail Mary pass" meaning in English

See Hail Mary pass in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: Hail Mary passes [plural]
Etymology: From Hail Mary, a prayer for intercession, from Latin Ave Maria, plus pass (“moving the ball from one player to another”). Attested from the 1970s in the context of American football. Etymology templates: {{m|en|Hail Mary}} Hail Mary, {{cog|la|Ave Maria}} Latin Ave Maria, {{m|en|pass||moving the ball from one player to another}} pass (“moving the ball from one player to another”) Head templates: {{en-noun|head=Hail Mary pass}} Hail Mary pass (plural Hail Mary passes)
  1. (American football) A long forward pass with little chance of completion, typically used by the losing team when time is running out and no other play is practical, in a desperate attempt to score the winning points. Categories (topical): Football (American) Related terms: forlorn hope [military, war, government, politics], hospital pass Translations (American football: pass with little chance of completion): Hail Mary [feminine] (German), Hail Mary Pass [masculine] (German)
    Sense id: en-Hail_Mary_pass-en-noun-LCuWRKdV Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 54 46 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 56 44 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 58 42 Topics: American-football, ball-games, football, games, hobbies, lifestyle, sports Disambiguation of 'American football: pass with little chance of completion': 83 17
  2. (by extension) An act done in desperation, with only a very small chance of success. Tags: broadly Translations (act done in desperation): Verzweiflungsakt [masculine] (German), Verzweiflungstat [feminine] (German), stawiać wszystko na jedną kartę [imperfective] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-Hail_Mary_pass-en-noun-b~bPgJwj Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 54 46 Disambiguation of 'act done in desperation': 16 84

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for Hail Mary pass meaning in English (4.8kB)

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

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