"balls-out" meaning in English

See balls-out in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: en-au-balls-out.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} balls-out (not comparable)
  1. (US, idiomatic, slang) Extreme; extremely great. Tags: US, idiomatic, not-comparable, slang
    Sense id: en-balls-out-en-adj-JMGa60-~ Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 53 11 20 17

Adverb

Audio: en-au-balls-out.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{en-adv|-}} balls-out (not comparable)
  1. Descriptive of the use of a centrifugal governor at maximum speed, corresponding to full throttle. Tags: not-comparable
    Sense id: en-balls-out-en-adv-sbGCijuj
  2. (US, idiomatic, slang) With great abandon. Tags: US, idiomatic, not-comparable, slang
    Sense id: en-balls-out-en-adv-TmeYCgdZ Categories (other): American English
  3. (US, idiomatic, slang) At the fastest possible speed. Tags: US, idiomatic, not-comparable, slang
    Sense id: en-balls-out-en-adv-muMmeg8I Categories (other): American English
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: balls to the wall, a synonymous term whose proposed etymologic connection to this one has been challenged

Download JSON data for balls-out meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "balls-out (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "53 11 20 17",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1976, CBer's Handy Atlas/Dictionary, page 9, column 2",
          "text": "He's making a balls-out run for Motor City by nightfall.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Extreme; extremely great."
      ],
      "id": "en-balls-out-en-adj-JMGa60-~",
      "links": [
        [
          "Extreme",
          "extreme"
        ],
        [
          "extremely",
          "extremely"
        ],
        [
          "great",
          "great"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, slang) Extreme; extremely great."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-balls-out.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-au-balls-out.ogg/En-au-balls-out.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-au-balls-out.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls-out"
}

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "balls-out (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adv"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adv",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "balls to the wall"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "a synonymous term whose proposed etymologic connection to this one has been challenged"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Descriptive of the use of a centrifugal governor at maximum speed, corresponding to full throttle."
      ],
      "id": "en-balls-out-en-adv-sbGCijuj",
      "links": [
        [
          "full throttle",
          "full throttle"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "With great abandon."
      ],
      "id": "en-balls-out-en-adv-TmeYCgdZ",
      "links": [
        [
          "abandon",
          "abandon"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, slang) With great abandon."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "At the fastest possible speed."
      ],
      "id": "en-balls-out-en-adv-muMmeg8I",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, slang) At the fastest possible speed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-balls-out.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-au-balls-out.ogg/En-au-balls-out.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-au-balls-out.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls-out"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English adverbs",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English uncomparable adjectives",
    "English uncomparable adverbs"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "balls-out (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English idioms",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1976, CBer's Handy Atlas/Dictionary, page 9, column 2",
          "text": "He's making a balls-out run for Motor City by nightfall.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Extreme; extremely great."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Extreme",
          "extreme"
        ],
        [
          "extremely",
          "extremely"
        ],
        [
          "great",
          "great"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, slang) Extreme; extremely great."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-balls-out.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-au-balls-out.ogg/En-au-balls-out.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-au-balls-out.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls-out"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English adverbs",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English uncomparable adjectives",
    "English uncomparable adverbs"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "balls-out (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adv"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adv",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "balls to the wall"
    },
    {
      "word": "a synonymous term whose proposed etymologic connection to this one has been challenged"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Descriptive of the use of a centrifugal governor at maximum speed, corresponding to full throttle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "full throttle",
          "full throttle"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English idioms",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "With great abandon."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "abandon",
          "abandon"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, slang) With great abandon."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English idioms",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "At the fastest possible speed."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, slang) At the fastest possible speed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic",
        "not-comparable",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-balls-out.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e5/En-au-balls-out.ogg/En-au-balls-out.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/En-au-balls-out.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "balls-out"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c 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.

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.