"get the ball rolling" meaning in English

See get the ball rolling in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-get the ball rolling.ogg [Australia] Forms: gets the ball rolling [present, singular, third-person], getting the ball rolling [participle, present], got the ball rolling [past], got the ball rolling [UK, participle, past], gotten the ball rolling [US, participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> the ball rolling}} get the ball rolling (third-person singular simple present gets the ball rolling, present participle getting the ball rolling, simple past got the ball rolling, past participle (UK) got the ball rolling or (US) gotten the ball rolling)
  1. (informal, idiomatic) To begin; to start some action; to set in motion. Tags: idiomatic, informal Synonyms: set the ball rolling, start the ball rolling Related terms: keep the ball rolling
    Sense id: en-get_the_ball_rolling-en-verb-5ONnEIgP Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for get the ball rolling meaning in English (2.3kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gets the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "getting the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gotten the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> the ball rolling"
      },
      "expansion": "get the ball rolling (third-person singular simple present gets the ball rolling, present participle getting the ball rolling, simple past got the ball rolling, past participle (UK) got the ball rolling or (US) gotten the ball rolling)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Did you ever get the ball rolling on your plans to build a shed?"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club",
          "text": "The execution of Littlefinger is formal, although his trial admittedly gives us ample opportunity to appreciate the tables finally turning on the man who got the ball rolling on all this bloodshed.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To begin; to start some action; to set in motion."
      ],
      "id": "en-get_the_ball_rolling-en-verb-5ONnEIgP",
      "links": [
        [
          "begin",
          "begin"
        ],
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ],
        [
          "set in motion",
          "set in motion"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) To begin; to start some action; to set in motion."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "keep the ball rolling"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "set the ball rolling"
        },
        {
          "word": "start the ball rolling"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-get the ball rolling.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ab/En-au-get_the_ball_rolling.ogg/En-au-get_the_ball_rolling.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/En-au-get_the_ball_rolling.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "get the ball rolling"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gets the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "getting the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "got the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gotten the ball rolling",
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "get<,,got,got􂀿UK􂁀:gotten􂀿US􂁀> the ball rolling"
      },
      "expansion": "get the ball rolling (third-person singular simple present gets the ball rolling, present participle getting the ball rolling, simple past got the ball rolling, past participle (UK) got the ball rolling or (US) gotten the ball rolling)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "keep the ball rolling"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Did you ever get the ball rolling on your plans to build a shed?"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club",
          "text": "The execution of Littlefinger is formal, although his trial admittedly gives us ample opportunity to appreciate the tables finally turning on the man who got the ball rolling on all this bloodshed.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To begin; to start some action; to set in motion."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "begin",
          "begin"
        ],
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ],
        [
          "set in motion",
          "set in motion"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, idiomatic) To begin; to start some action; to set in motion."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-get the ball rolling.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ab/En-au-get_the_ball_rolling.ogg/En-au-get_the_ball_rolling.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/En-au-get_the_ball_rolling.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "set the ball rolling"
    },
    {
      "word": "start the ball rolling"
    }
  ],
  "word": "get the ball rolling"
}

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.