"furball" meaning in English

See furball in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-furball.ogg [Australia] Forms: furballs [plural]
Etymology: fur + ball Etymology templates: {{compound|en|fur|ball}} fur + ball Head templates: {{en-noun}} furball (plural furballs)
  1. A ball of fur, especially one coughed up by a cat. Categories (topical): Hair Synonyms: hairball
    Sense id: en-furball-en-noun-VQix8eur Disambiguation of Hair: 54 30 16 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with topic categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 59 6 35 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 48 9 43
  2. (humorous, informal) A particularly furry person or animal. Tags: humorous, informal Translations (furry person or animal): boule de poils [feminine] (French)
    Sense id: en-furball-en-noun-greHlmqU Disambiguation of 'furry person or animal': 5 94 2
  3. (military, aviation, nautical, slang) A large, disorganized battle involving many different aircraft (especially fighters) or warships. Tags: slang Categories (topical): Aviation, Military, Nautical
    Sense id: en-furball-en-noun-MohyxwOV Categories (other): English entries with topic categories using raw markup Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 48 9 43 Topics: aeronautics, aerospace, aviation, business, engineering, government, military, natural-sciences, nautical, physical-sciences, politics, transport, war
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: dogfight

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for furball meaning in English (3.9kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fur",
        "3": "ball"
      },
      "expansion": "fur + ball",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "fur + ball",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "furballs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "furball (plural furballs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "dogfight"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "59 6 35",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "48 9 43",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "54 30 16",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Hair",
          "orig": "en:Hair",
          "parents": [
            "Body parts",
            "Body",
            "Anatomy",
            "Human",
            "Biology",
            "Medicine",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A ball of fur, especially one coughed up by a cat."
      ],
      "id": "en-furball-en-noun-VQix8eur",
      "links": [
        [
          "ball",
          "ball"
        ],
        [
          "fur",
          "fur"
        ],
        [
          "cough",
          "cough"
        ],
        [
          "cat",
          "cat"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hairball"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A particularly furry person or animal."
      ],
      "id": "en-furball-en-noun-greHlmqU",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "furry",
          "furry"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(humorous, informal) A particularly furry person or animal."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "informal"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "5 94 2",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "furry person or animal",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "boule de poils"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Aviation",
          "orig": "en:Aviation",
          "parents": [
            "Aeronautics",
            "Transport",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Military",
          "orig": "en:Military",
          "parents": [
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Nautical",
          "orig": "en:Nautical",
          "parents": [
            "Transport",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "48 9 43",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 22:21 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 2022-11-07",
          "text": "[…]But, as with the furball that had broken out around San Francisco, things escalated once again, as Teruzuki rolled better on her perception check, ambushing Sterett and blowing enough holes in her to force the U.S. destroyer to withdraw.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A large, disorganized battle involving many different aircraft (especially fighters) or warships."
      ],
      "id": "en-furball-en-noun-MohyxwOV",
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "aviation",
          "aviation"
        ],
        [
          "nautical",
          "nautical"
        ],
        [
          "large",
          "large"
        ],
        [
          "disorganized",
          "disorganized"
        ],
        [
          "battle",
          "battle"
        ],
        [
          "aircraft",
          "aircraft"
        ],
        [
          "fighter",
          "fighter"
        ],
        [
          "warship",
          "warship"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(military, aviation, nautical, slang) A large, disorganized battle involving many different aircraft (especially fighters) or warships."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "aeronautics",
        "aerospace",
        "aviation",
        "business",
        "engineering",
        "government",
        "military",
        "natural-sciences",
        "nautical",
        "physical-sciences",
        "politics",
        "transport",
        "war"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-furball.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/31/En-au-furball.ogg/En-au-furball.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/En-au-furball.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "furball"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "en:Hair"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fur",
        "3": "ball"
      },
      "expansion": "fur + ball",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "fur + ball",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "furballs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "furball (plural furballs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "dogfight"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A ball of fur, especially one coughed up by a cat."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ball",
          "ball"
        ],
        [
          "fur",
          "fur"
        ],
        [
          "cough",
          "cough"
        ],
        [
          "cat",
          "cat"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hairball"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English humorous terms",
        "English informal terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A particularly furry person or animal."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "furry",
          "furry"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(humorous, informal) A particularly furry person or animal."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "informal"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Aviation",
        "en:Military",
        "en:Nautical"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 22:21 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN), archived from the original on 2022-11-07",
          "text": "[…]But, as with the furball that had broken out around San Francisco, things escalated once again, as Teruzuki rolled better on her perception check, ambushing Sterett and blowing enough holes in her to force the U.S. destroyer to withdraw.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A large, disorganized battle involving many different aircraft (especially fighters) or warships."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ],
        [
          "aviation",
          "aviation"
        ],
        [
          "nautical",
          "nautical"
        ],
        [
          "large",
          "large"
        ],
        [
          "disorganized",
          "disorganized"
        ],
        [
          "battle",
          "battle"
        ],
        [
          "aircraft",
          "aircraft"
        ],
        [
          "fighter",
          "fighter"
        ],
        [
          "warship",
          "warship"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(military, aviation, nautical, slang) A large, disorganized battle involving many different aircraft (especially fighters) or warships."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "aeronautics",
        "aerospace",
        "aviation",
        "business",
        "engineering",
        "government",
        "military",
        "natural-sciences",
        "nautical",
        "physical-sciences",
        "politics",
        "transport",
        "war"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-furball.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/31/En-au-furball.ogg/En-au-furball.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/En-au-furball.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "furry person or animal",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "boule de poils"
    }
  ],
  "word": "furball"
}

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.