"balls about" meaning in English

See balls about in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-balls about.ogg Forms: ballses about [present, singular, third-person], ballsing about [participle, present], ballsed about [participle, past], ballsed about [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} balls about (third-person singular simple present ballses about, present participle ballsing about, simple past and past participle ballsed about)
  1. (chiefly British, vulgar, slang) To engage in a lot of activity with many unwanted or unnecessary details. Tags: British, slang, vulgar Synonyms: balls around
    Sense id: en-balls_about-en-verb--Beh8u7b Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "about", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 70 30 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "about": 73 27 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 81 19 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 84 16
  2. (chiefly British, vulgar, slang) To bullshit; to speak or act as a joke or with no real point. Tags: British, slang, vulgar
    Sense id: en-balls_about-en-verb-c~jZVeRt Categories (other): British English

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ballses about",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsing about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsed about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsed about",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "balls about (third-person singular simple present ballses about, present participle ballsing about, simple past and past participle ballsed about)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "70 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "73 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"about\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "81 19",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "84 16",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1957, Reports of the Institute of Community Studies - Volume 2:",
          "text": "This is just comfortable. I don't want no ballsing about with rows and noise in flats.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, J. M. Henegan, Pulse, page 80:",
          "text": "All that ballsing about for nothing.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Padraig O'Malley, Biting at the Grave, page 98:",
          "text": "If we can render them [ICJP] ineffective now, then we leave the way clear for a direct approach without all the ballsing about.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To engage in a lot of activity with many unwanted or unnecessary details."
      ],
      "id": "en-balls_about-en-verb--Beh8u7b",
      "links": [
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ],
        [
          "unwanted",
          "unwanted"
        ],
        [
          "unnecessary",
          "unnecessary"
        ],
        [
          "detail",
          "detail"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly British, vulgar, slang) To engage in a lot of activity with many unwanted or unnecessary details."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "68 32",
          "word": "balls around"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "slang",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Sam Millar, On the Brinks, →ISBN, page 271:",
          "text": "'You're on the front page of the Irish News.' 'Are you ballsing about?'",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To bullshit; to speak or act as a joke or with no real point."
      ],
      "id": "en-balls_about-en-verb-c~jZVeRt",
      "links": [
        [
          "bullshit",
          "bullshit"
        ],
        [
          "speak",
          "speak"
        ],
        [
          "act",
          "act"
        ],
        [
          "joke",
          "joke"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly British, vulgar, slang) To bullshit; to speak or act as a joke or with no real point."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "slang",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-balls about.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d7/En-au-balls_about.ogg/En-au-balls_about.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/En-au-balls_about.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls about"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"about\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ballses about",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsing about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsed about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsed about",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "balls about (third-person singular simple present ballses about, present participle ballsing about, simple past and past participle ballsed about)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English vulgarities"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1957, Reports of the Institute of Community Studies - Volume 2:",
          "text": "This is just comfortable. I don't want no ballsing about with rows and noise in flats.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, J. M. Henegan, Pulse, page 80:",
          "text": "All that ballsing about for nothing.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Padraig O'Malley, Biting at the Grave, page 98:",
          "text": "If we can render them [ICJP] ineffective now, then we leave the way clear for a direct approach without all the ballsing about.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To engage in a lot of activity with many unwanted or unnecessary details."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "activity",
          "activity"
        ],
        [
          "unwanted",
          "unwanted"
        ],
        [
          "unnecessary",
          "unnecessary"
        ],
        [
          "detail",
          "detail"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly British, vulgar, slang) To engage in a lot of activity with many unwanted or unnecessary details."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "slang",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English vulgarities"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Sam Millar, On the Brinks, →ISBN, page 271:",
          "text": "'You're on the front page of the Irish News.' 'Are you ballsing about?'",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To bullshit; to speak or act as a joke or with no real point."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bullshit",
          "bullshit"
        ],
        [
          "speak",
          "speak"
        ],
        [
          "act",
          "act"
        ],
        [
          "joke",
          "joke"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly British, vulgar, slang) To bullshit; to speak or act as a joke or with no real point."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "slang",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-balls about.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d7/En-au-balls_about.ogg/En-au-balls_about.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/En-au-balls_about.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "balls around"
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls about"
}

Download raw JSONL data for balls about meaning in English (2.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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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