ball up

See also: ball-up

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

ball up (third-person singular simple present balls up, present participle balling up, simple past and past participle balled up)

1. (transitive) To crush into a ball shape.

   She balled up her paper in frustration.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To coil up into a ball.

   He balled up his fists, ready to fight.

3. (intransitive) To hunch over and pull in one's arms and legs.

   Her son balls up in fear whenever there is a storm.

4. (transitive, slang) To ruin or botch.

   Synonyms: balls up; see also Thesaurus:spoil

   The best man balled up his speech, stammering and tripping over his words.

   • 1916, Ring W. Lardner, “Three Kings and a Pair”, in The Saturday Evening Post‎^[1]:

     "They got it all balled up the night I seen it," says Bishop. "The actors forgot their lines and a man couldn't make heads or tails of it."

5. (intransitive, MTE, slang) To smoke marijuana.

   Nah bro, I ain't tryna ball up tonight. I gotta focus on my studies.

   • 2018 December 11, @artemnooo, Twitter‎^[2], archived from the original on 9 October 2023:

     someone give those mans snapping themselves balling up on their sc story a hug bro they're just lonely

   • 2020 November 1, @_eLEEvated, Twitter‎^[3], archived from the original on 9 October 2023:

     God I fucking hate weed. I wish I didn't start smoking!!! Shit is an addiction🤢 I'm on my 3rd day sober and I have a loss in appetite, n lower than usual temper. Ion wanna die young lol, and to all my friends don't link me to ball up. Y'all should quit too!but I'll drink tho 😭

   • 2022 May 15, theofficialplushh, TikTok‎^[4], archived from the original on 2023-05-19:

     In Toronto, we literally have balling up rules.

   • 2022 December 23, u/StickyIgloo, “RESTAURANTS TO BALL UP IN?”, in Reddit‎^[5], r/Torontology, archived from the original on 9 October 2023:

     Why would u want to ball up in the restaurant? Smoking and eating dont mix and its better to smoke before anyway.

   • 2023 September 30, u/Eletric_Degle, “I just caught my 14 year old lil bro balling up”, in Reddit‎^[6], r/Torontology, archived from the original on 9 October 2023:

     stop trying to make him quit let him ball up one day hes gonna get so high hes gonna be scared to ball up

Translations

to crush into a ball

• Dutch: verpesten (nl), naar de knoppen helpen
• Italian: appallottolare (it)
• Spanish: apelotonar (es)

to hunch over and pull in one's limbs