"hardball" meaning in English

See hardball in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-hardball.wav Forms: more hardball [comparative], most hardball [superlative]
Etymology: From hard + ball. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|hard|ball}} hard + ball Head templates: {{en-adj}} hardball (comparative more hardball, superlative most hardball)
  1. Being or exhibiting tough or ruthless behavior, especially in combat, politics or business. Derived forms: play hardball
    Sense id: en-hardball-en-adj-YkOtb2kL Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English retronyms, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 41 39 10 9 Disambiguation of English retronyms: 33 35 24 8 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 39 34 18 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 36 21 5

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-hardball.wav Forms: hardballs [plural]
Etymology: From hard + ball. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|hard|ball}} hard + ball Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} hardball (countable and uncountable, plural hardballs)
  1. (ball games) In baseball, a type of ball and baseball game, as opposed to softball. Tags: countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Ball games
    Sense id: en-hardball-en-noun-NfXgqEPs Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English retronyms, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 41 39 10 9 Disambiguation of English retronyms: 33 35 24 8 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 39 34 18 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 36 21 5 Topics: ball-games, games, hobbies, lifestyle, sports
  2. Tough or ruthless behavior, especially in combat, politics or business. Tags: countable, uncountable
    Sense id: en-hardball-en-noun-eRMjOQiS Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English retronyms, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 41 39 10 9 Disambiguation of English retronyms: 33 35 24 8 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 39 34 18 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 38 36 21 5

Verb

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-hardball.wav Forms: hardballs [present, singular, third-person], hardballing [participle, present], hardballed [participle, past], hardballed [past]
Etymology: From hard + ball. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|hard|ball}} hard + ball Head templates: {{en-verb}} hardball (third-person singular simple present hardballs, present participle hardballing, simple past and past participle hardballed)
  1. (informal, transitive) To exhibit tough and ruthless behavior towards another individual. Tags: informal, transitive
    Sense id: en-hardball-en-verb-XmPEmoUt

Inflected forms

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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "hard",
        "3": "ball"
      },
      "expansion": "hard + ball",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From hard + ball.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ball games",
          "orig": "en:Ball games",
          "parents": [
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            "Human activity",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Human",
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            "Fundamental"
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      ],
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        "In baseball, a type of ball and baseball game, as opposed to softball."
      ],
      "id": "en-hardball-en-noun-NfXgqEPs",
      "links": [
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          "ball game",
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        [
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          "baseball"
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        [
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        [
          "softball",
          "softball"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ball games) In baseball, a type of ball and baseball game, as opposed to softball."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
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        "ball-games",
        "games",
        "hobbies",
        "lifestyle",
        "sports"
      ]
    },
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          "_dis": "41 39 10 9",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Tough or ruthless behavior, especially in combat, politics or business."
      ],
      "id": "en-hardball-en-noun-eRMjOQiS",
      "links": [
        [
          "Tough",
          "tough"
        ],
        [
          "ruthless",
          "ruthless"
        ],
        [
          "behavior",
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        ],
        [
          "combat",
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        ],
        [
          "politics",
          "politics"
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        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ]
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        "2": "hard",
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      },
      "expansion": "hard + ball",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From hard + ball.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more hardball",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most hardball",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
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  ],
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  "pos": "adj",
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          "_dis": "41 39 10 9",
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      ],
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        {
          "word": "play hardball"
        }
      ],
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        "Being or exhibiting tough or ruthless behavior, especially in combat, politics or business."
      ],
      "id": "en-hardball-en-adj-YkOtb2kL",
      "links": [
        [
          "tough",
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        [
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From hard + ball.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "hardballs",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hardballing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hardballed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "hardballed",
      "tags": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To exhibit tough and ruthless behavior towards another individual."
      ],
      "id": "en-hardball-en-verb-XmPEmoUt",
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        [
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        [
          "tough",
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        ],
        [
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        [
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          "behavior"
        ],
        [
          "towards",
          "towards"
        ],
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          "individual",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal, transitive) To exhibit tough and ruthless behavior towards another individual."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "pos": "noun",
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        "In baseball, a type of ball and baseball game, as opposed to softball."
      ],
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        "(ball games) In baseball, a type of ball and baseball game, as opposed to softball."
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        "hobbies",
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    {
      "glosses": [
        "Tough or ruthless behavior, especially in combat, politics or business."
      ],
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          "ruthless",
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    {
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        "superlative"
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        "Being or exhibiting tough or ruthless behavior, especially in combat, politics or business."
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        "third-person"
      ]
    },
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        "English transitive verbs"
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        "To exhibit tough and ruthless behavior towards another individual."
      ],
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        "(informal, transitive) To exhibit tough and ruthless behavior towards another individual."
      ],
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        "informal",
        "transitive"
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}

Download raw JSONL data for hardball meaning in English (5.1kB)


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.