balls

See also: Balls

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔːlz/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (Canada, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /bɑlz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːlz

Noun

balls

1. plural of ball

   Can you believe he can juggle six balls at once?

   • (Can we date this quote?) W. S. Gilbert, HMS Pinafore

     When the balls whistle free o'er the bright blue sea / We stand to our guns all day.

2. (vulgar, colloquial) The testicles.

   After that shot, his balls were really hurting!

Noun

balls pl (plural only)

1. (uncountable, vulgar, colloquial) Masculinity, particularly strength, courage, and force of will; chutzpah; brazenness.
   • 2007 September 28, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 2, Episode 6:

     Douglas: You've got spunk. And balls. And I like that in a woman.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:courage

   He must have a lot of balls to talk to his boss that way.

   He's the guy with the big balls in that group.

   Balls is all that it takes to succeed.

   • 1960, Carlos Fuentes, Sam Hileman, Where the Air is Clear‎^[1], page 80:

     Balls is all it takes to handle these people

   • 2006, Leonardo Padura, Havana Blue‎^[2], page 137:

     “Balls, gentlemen, balls is what you need to win at this game"

2. (uncountable, British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Commonwealth, Hawaii, vulgar, colloquial) Synonym of bollocks, nonsense.

   That's a load of balls.

3. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Commonwealth, Hawaii, vulgar) A balls-up; a botched job.

   Don't make a balls of it!

Derived terms

Derived terms

• ballsy
• bust one's balls
• bust someone's balls
• cramp balls (Daldinia concentrica)
• have someone by the balls

Translations

follow the translations in the entry "ball" — see ball

slang for testicles

• Armenian: ձվեր pl (jver), պլոր (hy) (plor)
• Aromanian: coalji n pl, boashi f pl
• Asturian: güevos (ast) m pl
• Azerbaijani: daşşaq
• Bengali: বীচি (bn) (bici)
• Bulgarian: топки (bg) f pl (topki), ташаци m pl (tašaci)
• Catalan: collons (ca) m pl
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 波子 (bo¹ zi²), (vulgar) 春子 (ceon¹ zi²), 波珠 (bo¹ zyu¹)

• Czech: koule (cs) f pl
• Danish: testikler c pl
• Esperanto: kojonoj
• Estonian: munad pl
• Finnish: pallit pl, munat (fi) pl, kassit (fi) pl
• French: couilles (fr) f pl, burnes (fr) f pl, roustons (fr) m pl, balloches (fr) f pl, valseuses (fr) f pl
• Galician: collóns m pl
• Georgian: ყვერები (q̇verebi), კვაჯები (ḳvaǯebi), ყოყორები (q̇oq̇orebi)
• German: Eier (de) pl, Klöten (de) pl or m
• Greek: αρχίδια (el) n pl (archídia)
• Hebrew: ביצים pl (betzim)
• Hungarian: tök (hu)
• Indonesian: peler (vulgar), biji salak, biji peler (vulgar)
• Interlingua: coleones
• Italian: balle (it) f pl, palle (it) f pl, coglioni (it) m pl, testicoli (it) m pl
• Japanese: 金玉 (ja) (kintama)
• Javanese: konthol (jv) (vulgar)
• Latin: cōleī m pl (vulgar)
• Lithuanian: kiaušai m pl
• Persian: خایه (fa) (xâye)
• Polish: jaja (pl) pl
• Portuguese: saco (pt) m, bolas (pt) f pl, colhões (pt) m pl
• Romanian: boașe (ro) n pl, coaie (ro) n pl, ouă (ro) n pl
• Russian: я́йца (ru) n pl (jájca)
• Serbo-Croatian: jaja (sh) n pl, muda (sh) n pl
• Slovene: jajca (sl) n pl
• Spanish: huevos (es) m pl, pelotas (es) f pl, cojones (es) m pl, bolas (es) f pl
• Tagalog: betlog (tl)
• Turkish: taşak (tr)
• Yiddish: אייער n pl (eyer)

slang for masculinity, inclusive of strength, courage, and force of will

• Bulgarian: дупе n (dupe) (сленг)
• Catalan: ous (ca) m pl, collons (ca) m pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有種／有种 (zh) (yǒuzhǒng)

• Dutch: ballen (nl), kloten (nl)
• Finnish: muna (fi) (in the idiom "olla munaa"), kantti (fi)
• French: couilles (fr) f pl
• Galician: collóns m pl
• Georgian: ტრაკი (ṭraḳi), ტრაკის ქონა (ṭraḳis kona)
• German: Mut (de) m, (colloquial) Mumm (de) m
• Greek: αρχίδια (el) n pl (archídia)
• Hebrew: ביצים m pl (betzim)
• Hungarian: tökös (hu)
• Interlingua: coleones
• Italian: palle (it) f pl
• Polish: jaja (pl) pl
• Portuguese: colhões (pt) m pl
• Spanish: huevos (es) m pl, cojones (es) m pl
• Swedish: stake (sv) c

Verb

balls (third-person singular simple present ballses, present participle ballsing, simple past and past participle ballsed)

1. (vulgar, transitive) Speaking or acting with bravado to achieve (something)
   • 1981, Tiny Boyles, Hank Nuwer, William Boyles, A Killing Trade, →ISBN, page 191:

     You're going up to the front door of that mansion and ballsing your way inside.

   • 2009, Keith Brooke, The Accord, page 135:

     The poor fuck is broken-hearted, and he thinks he is ballsing it out really well, but he isn't.

   • 2014, Claire Farrell, Make You: Stake You #2:

     He was ballsing his way through the conversation. For the first time, I caught a glimpse of something vulnerable behind the usual brashness.

2. (vulgar, slang) To engage in sexual intercourse.

Verb

balls

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of ball

Derived terms

• balls about, balls around
• balls on
• balls up

Adverb

balls (not comparable)

1. (slang) Very. Intensifier.

   It is balls cold out there.

Translations

intensifier: very

• Finnish: vitun (fi), helvetin (fi), helkkarin
• French: putain de (fr)
• Hungarian: tök (hu)

Further reading

• ball on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• testicle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• courage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [ˈbaʎs]

Noun

balls

1. plural of ball