See the ball is in someone's court in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From tennis, as when the ball is in someone's court it is their turn to play.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "have the ball in one's court",
"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
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{
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"2": "phrase",
"head": "the ball is in someone's court"
},
"expansion": "the ball is in someone's court",
"name": "head"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
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"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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"text": "Well there's not much more I can do, so the ball is in your court now.",
"type": "example"
},
{
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202
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],
"ref": "2017 October 9, Theresa May, 1:05 from the start, in Theresa May's Brexit speech, via The Guardian:",
"text": "Achieving that partnership will require leadership and flexibility. Not just from us, but from our friends, the 27 nations of the EU. And as we look forward to the next stage, the ball is in their court, but I am optimistic it will receive a positive response.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"It is someone's turn to do something; often making a decision."
],
"id": "en-the_ball_is_in_someone's_court-en-phrase-pz4vTGrn",
"links": [
[
"something",
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) It is someone's turn to do something; often making a decision."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "la pilota és a la teulada d'algú"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "pallo on jollakulla"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "la balle est dans le camp de quelqu’un"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "am Zug sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "dran sein"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "piłka jest po czyjejś stronie"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "mingea e în terenul cuiva"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "la pelota está en el tejado de alguien"
}
]
}
],
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"word": "the ball is in someone's court"
}
{
"etymology_text": "From tennis, as when the ball is in someone's court it is their turn to play.",
"forms": [
{
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"tags": [
"alternative"
]
}
],
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "phrase",
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"text": "Well there's not much more I can do, so the ball is in your court now.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
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176,
202
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],
"ref": "2017 October 9, Theresa May, 1:05 from the start, in Theresa May's Brexit speech, via The Guardian:",
"text": "Achieving that partnership will require leadership and flexibility. Not just from us, but from our friends, the 27 nations of the EU. And as we look forward to the next stage, the ball is in their court, but I am optimistic it will receive a positive response.",
"type": "quote"
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],
"glosses": [
"It is someone's turn to do something; often making a decision."
],
"links": [
[
"something",
"something"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) It is someone's turn to do something; often making a decision."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
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],
"translations": [
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "la pilota és a la teulada d'algú"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "pallo on jollakulla"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "la balle est dans le camp de quelqu’un"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "am Zug sein"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "dran sein"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "piłka jest po czyjejś stronie"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "mingea e în terenul cuiva"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "Translations",
"word": "la pelota está en el tejado de alguien"
}
],
"word": "the ball is in someone's court"
}
Download raw JSONL data for the ball is in someone's court meaning in English (3.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-29 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (e937b02 and f1c2b61). 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.