What is "ball"

Ball \Ball\ (b[add]l), n. [OE. bal, balle; akin to OHG. balla, palla, G. ball, Icel. b["o]llr, ball; cf. F. balle. Cf. 1st Bale, n., Pallmall.]

1. Any round or roundish body or mass; a sphere or globe; as, a ball of twine; a ball of snow.

2. A spherical body of any substance or size used to play with, as by throwing, knocking, kicking, etc.

3. A general name for games in which a ball is thrown, kicked, or knocked. See Baseball, and Football.

4. Any solid spherical, cylindrical, or conical projectile of lead or iron, to be discharged from a firearm; as, a cannon ball; a rifle ball; -- often used collectively; as, powder and ball. Spherical balls for the smaller firearms are commonly called bullets.

5. (Pyrotechnics & Mil.) A flaming, roundish body shot into the air; a case filled with combustibles intended to burst and give light or set fire, or to produce smoke or stench; as, a fire ball; a stink ball.

6. (Print.) A leather-covered cushion, fastened to a handle called a ballstock; -- formerly used by printers for inking the form, but now superseded by the roller.

7. A roundish protuberant portion of some part of the body; as, the ball of the thumb; the ball of the foot.

8. (Far.) A large pill, a form in which medicine is commonly given to horses; a bolus.
   --White.

9. The globe or earth.
   --Pope.

   Move round the dark terrestrial ball.
   --Addison.

10. (Baseball) A pitched ball, not struck at by the batter, which fails to pass over the home plate at a height not greater than the batter's shoulder nor less than his knee (i.e. it is outside the strike zone). If the pitcher pitches four balls before three strikes are called, the batter advances to first base, and the action of pitching four balls is called a walk.

    10. a testicle; usually used in the plural. [vulgar]

11. pl. courage; nerve. [vulgar]

    Ball and socket joint, a joint in which a ball moves within a socket, so as to admit of motion in every direction within certain limits.

    Ball bearings, a mechanical device for lessening the friction of axle bearings by means of small loose metal balls.

    Ball cartridge, a cartridge containing a ball, as distinguished from a blank cartridge, containing only powder.

    Ball cock, a faucet or valve which is opened or closed by the fall or rise of a ball floating in water at the end of a lever.

    Ball gudgeon, a pivot of a spherical form, which permits lateral deflection of the arbor or shaft, while retaining the pivot in its socket.
    --Knight.

    Ball lever, the lever used in a ball cock.

    Ball of the eye, the eye itself, as distinguished from its lids and socket; -- formerly, the pupil of the eye.

    Ball valve (Mach.), a contrivance by which a ball, placed in a circular cup with a hole in its bottom, operates as a valve.

    Ball vein (Mining), a sort of iron ore, found in loose masses of a globular form, containing sparkling particles.

    Three balls, or Three golden balls, a pawnbroker's sign or shop.

    on the ball alert; competent and knowledgeable.

    to carry the ball to carry on the task; to assume the responsibility.

    to drop the ball to fail to perform as expected; to fail to live up to a responsibility.

    Syn: See Globe.

Ball \Ball\, n. [F. bal, fr. OF. baler to dance, fr. LL. ballare. Of uncertain origin; cf. Gr. ba`llein to toss or throw, or pa`llein, pa`llesqai, to leap, bound, balli`zein to dance, jump about; or cf. 1st Ball, n.]

1. A social assembly for the purpose of dancing; -- usually applied to an occasion lavish or formal.

2. A very enjoyable time; as, we had a ball at the wedding.

Ball \Ball\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Balled (b[add]ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Balling.] To gather balls which cling to the feet, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls; as, the horse balls; the snow balls.

Ball \Ball\, v. t.

1. (Metal.) To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.

2. To form or wind into a ball; as, to ball cotton.

"round object," Old English *beal, from or corresponding to Old Norse bollr "ball," from Proto-Germanic *balluz (cognates: Old High German ballo, German Ball), from PIE root *bhel- (2) "to blow, inflate, swell" (see bole).\n

\nMeaning "testicle" is from early 14c. Ball of the foot is from mid-14c. A ball as an object in a sports game is recorded from c.1200; To have the ball "hold the advantage" is from c.1400. To be on the ball is 1912, from sports. Ball-point pen first recorded 1946. Ball of fire when first recorded in 1821 referred to "a glass of brandy;" as "spectacularly successful striver" it is c.1900.

"dancing party," 1630s, from French, from Old French baller "to dance," from Late Latin ballare "to dance," from Greek ballizein "to dance, jump about" (see ballistics). Hence, "very enjoyable time," 1945, American English slang, perhaps back to 1930s in black slang.

1650s, "make into a ball," from ball (n.1). Sense of "to become like a ball" is 1713; that of "to copulate" is first recorded 1940s in jazz slang, either from the noun sense of "testicle" or "enjoyable time" (from ball (n.2)). Related: Balled; balling.

Etymology 1 interj. (label en Australian rules football) An appeal by the crowd for holding the ball against a tackled player. This is heard almost any time an opposition player is tackled, without regard to whether the rules about "prior opportunity" to dispose of the ball are fulfilled. n. 1 A solid or hollow sphere, or part thereof. 2 # A quantity of string, thread, etc., wound into a spherical shape. 3 # (label en ballistics) A solid, spherical nonexplosive missile for a cannon, etc. 4 ## A jacketed non-expanding bullet, typically of military origin. 5 # A roundish protuberant portion of some part of the body. 6 # (label en anatomy) The front of the bottom of the foot, just behind the toes. 7 # The globe; the earthly sphere. 8 # (label en mathematics) The set of points in a metric space lying within a given distance (the radius) of a given point; specifically, the homologue of the disk in a Euclidean space of any number of dimensions. 9 # (label en mathematics more generally) The set of points in a topological space lying within some open set containing a given point; the analogue of the disk in a Euclidean space. 10 # An object, generally spherical, used for playing games. vb. 1 (label en transitive) To form or wind into a ball. 2 (label en metalworking) To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling. 3 (label en transitive vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with. 4 (label en ambitransitive) To gather balls which cling to the feet, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls. 5 (label en slang usually in present participle) To be hip or cool. Etymology 2

n. 1 A formal dance. 2 (label en informal) A very enjoyable time.

v. form into a ball by winding or rolling; "ball wool"

1. n. round object that is hit or thrown or kicked in games; "the ball travelled 90 mph on his serve"; "the mayor threw out the first ball"; "the ball rolled into the corner pocket"

2. a solid ball shot by a musket; "they had to carry a ramrod as well as powder and ball" [syn: musket ball]

3. an object with a spherical shape; "a ball of fire" [syn: globe, orb]

4. the people assembled at a lavish formal dance; "the ball was already emptying out before the fire alarm sounded"

5. one of the two male reproductive glands that produce spermatozoa and secrete androgens; "she kicked him in the balls and got away" [syn: testis, testicle, orchis, ballock, bollock, nut, egg]

6. a spherical object used as a plaything; "he played with his rubber ball in the bathtub"

7. United States comedienne best known as the star of a popular television program (1911-1989) [syn: Lucille Ball]

8. a compact mass; "a ball of mud caught him on the shoulder" [syn: clod, glob, lump, clump, chunk]

9. a lavish formal dance

10. a more or less rounded anatomical body or mass; ball of the human foot or ball at the base of the thumb; "he stood on the balls of his feet"

11. a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of 9 players; teams take turns at bat trying to score run; "he played baseball in high school"; "there was a baseball game on every empy lot"; "there was a desire for National League ball in the area"; "play ball!" [syn: baseball, baseball game]

12. a pitch that is not in the strike zone; "he threw nine straight balls before the manager yanked him"

A ball is a round object with various uses.

Ball or balls may also refer to:

Ball is a lunar impact crater that is located in the rugged southern highlands of the Moon. The formation is circular and symmetrical, and has receive little significant wear. The interior is rough-surfaced, curving downward toward the relatively wide central peak at the midpoint.

The crater is located to the west of the crater Lexell and southeast of Gauricus. To the south is Sasserides, and further to the south-southwest is the prominent ray crater Tycho.

BALL is computer software consisting of the versatile C++ class framework BALL (Biochemical Algorithms Library), a library of algorithms and data structures for molecular modelling and computational structural bioinformatics, a Python interface to this library and an open source graphical interface to BALL, the molecule viewer BALLView.

BALL has evolved from a commercial product into free-of-charge open-source software licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). BALLView is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) license.

BALL and BALLView have been ported to the operating systems Linux, OS X, Solaris, and Windows.

The molecule viewer BALLView, also developed by the BALL project team, is a C++ application of BALL using Qt, and OpenGL with the real-time ray tracer RTFact as render back ends. For both, BALLView offers three-dimensional and stereoscopic visualizing in several different modes, and applying directly the algorithms of the BALL library via its graphical user interface.

The BALL project is developed and maintained by groups at Saarland University, Mainz University, and University of Tübingen. Both the library and the viewer are heavily used for education and research. BALL packages have been made available in the Debian project in April 2010.

[[ at 20s by Kardovsky.jpg|thumb|

A ball at the Russian imperial court in the 1910s.]] A ball is a formal dance party.

Attenders wear evening attire, which is specified on the invitation as black tie or white tie (the most formal). Social dance forms a large part of the evening; actual ballroom dancing may or may not occur.

Bearing balls are special highly spherical and smooth balls, most commonly used in ball bearings, but also used as components in things like freewheel mechanisms. The balls come in many different grades. These grades are defined by bodies such as the American Bearing Manufacturers Association (ABMA), a body which sets standards for the precision of bearing balls. They are manufactured in machines designed specially for the job.

In 2008, the United States produced 5.778 billion bearing balls.

"Ball" is a song by American hip hop recording artist T.I., released on October 16, 2012, as the second official single from his eighth studio album Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head (2012). The song features a guest appearance from fellow American rapper Lil Wayne, as well as production and uncredited vocals from American record producer Rico Love. In 2013, the song was included on the soundtrack to the film Fast & Furious 6.

In mathematics, a ball is the space bounded by a sphere. It may be a closed ball (including the boundary points that comprise the sphere) or an open ball (excluding them).

These concepts are defined not only in three-dimensional Euclidean space but also for lower and higher dimensions, and for metric spaces in general. A ball or hyperball in dimensions is called an -ball and is bounded by an -sphere. Thus, for example, a ball in the Euclidean plane is the same thing as a disk, the area bounded by a circle. In Euclidean 3-space, a ball is taken to be the volume bounded by a 2-dimensional spherical shell. In a one-dimensional space, a ball is a line segment.

In other contexts, such as in Euclidean geometry and informal use, sphere is sometimes used to mean ball.

Ball is the eighth studio album released by the Athens, GA based band Widespread Panic. It was released on April 15, 2003 and it was the band's first studio album with George McConnell on lead guitar. McConnell joined the band in 2002 after the death of founding member Michael Houser.

This process of recording the album departed from the band's usual methodology. Widespread Panic's previous studio albums had included mostly songs already familiar to the band's fans. Ball, however, included 12 never-before-heard songs written specifically for the album, along with one song, Time Waits, previously performed only by singer/guitarist John Bell in solo appearances. It was also the first Widespread Panic album which did not feature at least one cover song.

The album reached a peak position of #61 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Ball is the third studio album by the rock band Iron Butterfly, released in January 17 1969. After the enormous success of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Iron Butterfly modified its acid-rock sound somewhat and experimented with more melodic compositions. The band's trademark heavy guitars, however, are still evident on such tracks as "In the Time of Our Lives" and "It Must Be Love". The album reached #3 in the charts, making Ball more immediately successful than In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Ball was certified Gold in March 1969. It also spawned two minor hit singles: "Soul Experience", an uncharacteristically uplifting song for the group, went to #75 on the Billboard charts, and despite its nightmarish musical tones and morbid lyrics, "In the Time of Our Lives" managed to reach #96. This is the second and final studio album to feature the famous lineup of Ingle, Bushy, Dorman and Brann.

In 1999, Collector's Choice Music released Ball with two bonus tracks, "I Can't Help But Deceive You Little Girl" and "To Be Alone", which previously were available only on a 7" single although "I Can't Help But Deceive You Little Girl" had been released on the 1993 compilation Light And Heavy.

The Ball is an apparatus used in rhythmic gymnastics. It is made of either rubber or synthetic material (pliable plastic) provided it possesses the same elasticity as rubber. It is from 18 to 20 cm in diameter and must have a minimum weight of 400g. The ball can be of any colour. The ball should rest in the gymnast's hand and not rest against the wrist or be able to be grasped.

Fundamental elements of a ball routine include throwing, bouncing or rolling. The gymnast must use both hands and work on the whole floor area whilst showing continuous flowing movement.

The ball is sometimes placed on their back while the gymnast does a skill such as a walk-over.

Category:Rhythmic gymnastics apparatus Category:Balls

The ball of the foot is the padded portion of the sole between the toes and the arch, underneath the heads of the metatarsal bones, on which the weight of the body rests when the heel is raised. It is referred to as the "ball" because of its rounded, protuberant shape, and is alternately referred to as one of the "pads" of the feet, along with the toe and heel pads.

In comparative foot morphology, the ball is most analogous to the metacarpal (forepaw) or metatarsal (hindpaw) pad in many mammals with paws, and serves mostly the same functions.

The ball is a common area in which people develop pain, known as metatarsalgia. People who frequently wear high heels often develop pain in the balls of their feet from the immense amount of pressure that is placed on them for long periods of time, due to the inclination of the shoes. To remedy this, there is a market for ball-of-foot or general foot cushions that are placed into shoes to relieve some of the pressure. Alternately, people can have a procedure done in which a dermal filler is injected into the balls of the feet to add cushioning.

In Canada and in the United States, the term football refers to a prolate spheroid ball used in the context of playing gridiron football. Footballs are often made of cow hide leather, as such a material is required in professional and collegiate football. Footballs used in recreation, and in organised youth leagues, may be made of rubber or plastic materials (the high school football rulebooks still allow the inexpensive all-rubber footballs, though they are less common than leather).

A football, soccer ball, or association football ball is the ball used in the sport of association football. The name of the ball varies according to whether the sport is called "football", "soccer", or "association football". The ball's spherical shape, as well as its size, weight, and material composition, are specified by Law 2 of the Laws of the Game maintained by the International Football Association Board. Additional, more stringent, standards are specified by FIFA and subordinate governing bodies for the balls used in the competitions they sanction.

Early footballs began as animal bladders or stomachs that would easily fall apart if kicked too much. Improvements became possible in the 19th century with the introduction of rubber and discoveries of Vulcanization by Charles Goodyear. The modern 32-panel ball design was developed in 1962 by Eigil Nielsen, and technological research continues today to develop footballs with improved performance.

Ball is a surname of English/ German Jewish origin. First mention of the name appeared in Cheshire.

This surname has multiple potential origins, as do quite a few other short surnames:

• one origin relates to body type and arose as a nickname, originally from Middle English
• likewise, another origin relates to baldness, again arising as a nickname
• another purported origin is related to living near a "knoll or rounded hill"
• the surname may also descend from the Old Norse personal name "Balle"
• it could be a toponymic surname, related to Ball, Cornwall, England

A multiplicity of origins for this surname is also supported by genetic analysis.

In the United Kingdom, according to a study based on data available from Experian, the surname has declined in use by 55% between 1881 and 2008, possibly though not certainly due to negative connotation elicited by the surname.