hardball

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

[edit]

From hard +‎ ball.

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

[edit]

hardball (countable and uncountable, plural hardballs)

  1. (ball games) In baseball, a type of ball and baseball game, as opposed to softball.
  2. Tough or ruthless behavior, especially in combat, politics or business.

Adjective

[edit]

hardball (comparative more hardball, superlative most hardball)

  1. Being or exhibiting tough or ruthless behavior, especially in combat, politics or business.

Derived terms

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

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.