balls

See also: Balls

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔːlz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (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!

3. (uncountable, vulgar, colloquial) Bravery, courage, chutzpah, or 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"

4. (uncountable, Britain, vulgar, colloquial) Rubbish, nonsense.

   That's a load of balls.

5. (UK, Ireland, 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

testicles

• Armenian: ձվեր pl (jver), պլոր (hy) (plor)
• Aromanian: coalji n pl, boashi f pl
• Asturian: güevos (ast) m pl
• Azerbaijani: daşşaq
• Bengali: বীচি (bici)
• Bulgarian: топки (bg) f pl (topki)
• 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
• 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)
• Yiddish: אייער‎ n pl (eyer)

bravery

• Catalan: ous (ca) m pl, collons (ca) m pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有種 (zh), 有种 (zh) (yǒuzhǒng)

• Dutch: ballen (nl), kloten (nl)
• Finnish: muna (fi) (in the idiom "olla munaa"), kantti (fi)
• French: couilles (fr) f pl
• Georgian: ტრაკი (ṭraḳi), ტრაკის ქონა (ṭraḳis kona)
• 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

rubbish

• Finnish: moska (fi)
• French: conneries (fr) f pl

• Italian: balle (it) f pl
• Portuguese: besteira (pt) f, baboseira (pt) f

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 form 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)

Further reading

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

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Catalan

Pronunciation

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

Noun

balls

1. plural of ball