patball
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English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]patball (uncountable)
- (uncountable) A particular children's ball game played against a wall with a tennis ball.
- (figurative) A back-and-forth situation.
- 1981, Richard Howard Stafford Crossman, The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman, Holmes & Meier Pub:
- Opposite him sat Peter Thorneycroft and the patball went on and on and on. It's as though one hadn't left off last July - the same sort of professional debating, two heavyweights in a clinch because neither wants to knock the other out […]
- (countable) The ball used in the game of patball.
- (figurative) A pawn, a football.
- 2003, Lindsey Davis, The Accusers, Century, →ISBN:
- Don't you know that your very best friend is being made somebody's patball?