"balls up" meaning in English

See balls up in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Etymology: From ball up. Head templates: {{head|en|verb form}} balls up
  1. third-person singular simple present indicative of ball up Tags: form-of, indicative, present, singular, third-person Form of: ball up
    Sense id: en-balls_up-en-verb-UcrK4ulf Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "up", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 57 20 23 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "up": 57 20 23 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 60 19 22 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 57 20 23
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Verb

Forms: ballses up [present, singular, third-person], ballsing up [participle, present], ballsed up [participle, past], ballsed up [past]
Etymology: From balls + up; see also balls-up. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} balls up (third-person singular simple present ballses up, present participle ballsing up, simple past and past participle ballsed up)
  1. (UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, vulgar, intransitive) To make a mess of a situtation. Tags: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, intransitive, vulgar
    Sense id: en-balls_up-en-verb-nsyB-e1r Categories (other): British English, Commonwealth English, Irish English
  2. (UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, vulgar, transitive) To do something badly. To ruin a job. Tags: Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, transitive, vulgar
    Sense id: en-balls_up-en-verb-4CfQK~oa Categories (other): British English, Commonwealth English, Irish English
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_text": "From ball up.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb form"
      },
      "expansion": "balls up",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "57 20 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 20 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"up\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "60 19 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 20 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "form_of": [
        {
          "word": "ball up"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "third-person singular simple present indicative of ball up"
      ],
      "id": "en-balls_up-en-verb-UcrK4ulf",
      "links": [
        [
          "ball up",
          "ball up#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "form-of",
        "indicative",
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls up"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_text": "From balls + up; see also balls-up.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ballses up",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsing up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsed up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsed up",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "balls up (third-person singular simple present ballses up, present participle ballsing up, simple past and past participle ballsed up)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Commonwealth English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Irish English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Jan Kjaerstad, The Discoverer, →ISBN:",
          "text": "He was putting everything he had into it, but he kept ballsing up.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Lesley Thomson, A Kind of Vanishing, →ISBN:",
          "text": "'We just have to get through without ballsing up",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make a mess of a situtation."
      ],
      "id": "en-balls_up-en-verb-nsyB-e1r",
      "links": [
        [
          "mess",
          "mess"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, vulgar, intransitive) To make a mess of a situtation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Commonwealth",
        "Ireland",
        "UK",
        "intransitive",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Commonwealth English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Irish English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He really ballsed up that paint work. It'll have to be redone!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, Mungo MacCallum, Mungo's Canberra, page 142:",
          "text": "It has got to the ludicrous stage that whenever Snedden makes a speech without actually ballsing something up irrevocably, they tell him he's the greatest thing since Winston Churchill;",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, A.L. Kennedy, Everything You Need, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Bearing in mind that if you're teasing but you have to explain it, then you're not teasing, you're just ballsing things up and being a fucking thug.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 January 28, Justin Myers, “62 dating green flags that shout ‘this one’s a keeper’”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "We’re humans, we’re fallible, there is no medal for being right all the time; admitting we ballsed it up is not a weakness, it’s a superpower.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do something badly. To ruin a job."
      ],
      "id": "en-balls_up-en-verb-4CfQK~oa",
      "links": [
        [
          "badly",
          "badly"
        ],
        [
          "ruin",
          "ruin"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, vulgar, transitive) To do something badly. To ruin a job."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Commonwealth",
        "Ireland",
        "UK",
        "transitive",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls up"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English non-lemma forms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"up\"",
    "English verb forms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_text": "From ball up.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "verb form"
      },
      "expansion": "balls up",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "form_of": [
        {
          "word": "ball up"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "third-person singular simple present indicative of ball up"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ball up",
          "ball up#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "form-of",
        "indicative",
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls up"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"up\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_text": "From balls + up; see also balls-up.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ballses up",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsing up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsed up",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ballsed up",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "balls up (third-person singular simple present ballses up, present participle ballsing up, simple past and past participle ballsed up)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "Commonwealth English",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English vulgarities",
        "Irish English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Jan Kjaerstad, The Discoverer, →ISBN:",
          "text": "He was putting everything he had into it, but he kept ballsing up.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, Lesley Thomson, A Kind of Vanishing, →ISBN:",
          "text": "'We just have to get through without ballsing up",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make a mess of a situtation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mess",
          "mess"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, vulgar, intransitive) To make a mess of a situtation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Commonwealth",
        "Ireland",
        "UK",
        "intransitive",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "Commonwealth English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "English vulgarities",
        "Irish English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He really ballsed up that paint work. It'll have to be redone!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, Mungo MacCallum, Mungo's Canberra, page 142:",
          "text": "It has got to the ludicrous stage that whenever Snedden makes a speech without actually ballsing something up irrevocably, they tell him he's the greatest thing since Winston Churchill;",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, A.L. Kennedy, Everything You Need, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Bearing in mind that if you're teasing but you have to explain it, then you're not teasing, you're just ballsing things up and being a fucking thug.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 January 28, Justin Myers, “62 dating green flags that shout ‘this one’s a keeper’”, in The Guardian:",
          "text": "We’re humans, we’re fallible, there is no medal for being right all the time; admitting we ballsed it up is not a weakness, it’s a superpower.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do something badly. To ruin a job."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "badly",
          "badly"
        ],
        [
          "ruin",
          "ruin"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, Commonwealth, Ireland, vulgar, transitive) To do something badly. To ruin a job."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Commonwealth",
        "Ireland",
        "UK",
        "transitive",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls up"
}

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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 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). 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.