See drop the ball in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for drop the ball meaning in English (3.7kB)
{
"etymology_text": "An allusion to the rules of such games as baseball, American football or cricket wherein literally dropping the ball would be a mistake.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "drops the ball",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "dropping the ball",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "dropped the ball",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "dropped the ball",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "drop the ball (third-person singular simple present drops the ball, present participle dropping the ball, simple past and past participle dropped the ball)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "76 24",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "68 32",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "73 27",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English predicates",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "72 28",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"parents": [
"Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1996 Dec. 13, Peter Stack, \"Tom and ‘Jerry’ Make a Great Team\" (film review of Jerry Maguire), San Francisco Chronicle (retrieved 21 Sept 2013)",
"text": "The movie ought to sputter out here, but Crowe and Cruise don't drop the ball."
}
],
"glosses": [
"To fail in one's responsibilities or duties, or to make a mistake, especially at a critical point or when the result is very negative."
],
"id": "en-drop_the_ball-en-verb--dEdm87C",
"links": [
[
"fail",
"fail"
],
[
"responsibilities",
"responsibility"
],
[
"duties",
"duty"
],
[
"mistake",
"mistake"
],
[
"critical",
"critical"
],
[
"negative",
"negative"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To fail in one's responsibilities or duties, or to make a mistake, especially at a critical point or when the result is very negative."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"word": "een steek laten vallen"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"word": "tunaroida"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"tags": [
"colloquial"
],
"word": "mokata"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"tags": [
"colloquial"
],
"word": "munata"
},
{
"_dis1": "98 2",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
],
"word": "kusta"
}
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see drop, ball."
],
"id": "en-drop_the_ball-en-verb-Ftmd3ECc",
"links": [
[
"drop",
"drop#English"
],
[
"ball",
"ball#English"
]
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "9 91",
"word": "fumble"
},
{
"_dis1": "9 91",
"word": "take one's eye off the ball"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "9 91",
"word": "fall on one's face"
},
{
"_dis1": "9 91",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
],
"word": "fuck up"
},
{
"_dis1": "9 91",
"word": "screw the pooch"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-drop the ball.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9a/En-au-drop_the_ball.ogg/En-au-drop_the_ball.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/En-au-drop_the_ball.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "drop the ball"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English predicates",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English verbs"
],
"etymology_text": "An allusion to the rules of such games as baseball, American football or cricket wherein literally dropping the ball would be a mistake.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "drops the ball",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "dropping the ball",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "dropped the ball",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "dropped the ball",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "drop the ball (third-person singular simple present drops the ball, present participle dropping the ball, simple past and past participle dropped the ball)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "fumble"
},
{
"word": "take one's eye off the ball"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1996 Dec. 13, Peter Stack, \"Tom and ‘Jerry’ Make a Great Team\" (film review of Jerry Maguire), San Francisco Chronicle (retrieved 21 Sept 2013)",
"text": "The movie ought to sputter out here, but Crowe and Cruise don't drop the ball."
}
],
"glosses": [
"To fail in one's responsibilities or duties, or to make a mistake, especially at a critical point or when the result is very negative."
],
"links": [
[
"fail",
"fail"
],
[
"responsibilities",
"responsibility"
],
[
"duties",
"duty"
],
[
"mistake",
"mistake"
],
[
"critical",
"critical"
],
[
"negative",
"negative"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To fail in one's responsibilities or duties, or to make a mistake, especially at a critical point or when the result is very negative."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"glosses": [
"Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see drop, ball."
],
"links": [
[
"drop",
"drop#English"
],
[
"ball",
"ball#English"
]
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-drop the ball.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/9a/En-au-drop_the_ball.ogg/En-au-drop_the_ball.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/En-au-drop_the_ball.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "fall on one's face"
},
{
"tags": [
"vulgar"
],
"word": "fuck up"
},
{
"word": "screw the pooch"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"word": "een steek laten vallen"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"word": "tunaroida"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"tags": [
"colloquial"
],
"word": "mokata"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"tags": [
"colloquial"
],
"word": "munata"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fail in one’s responsibilities",
"tags": [
"vulgar"
],
"word": "kusta"
}
],
"word": "drop the ball"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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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