spaldeen

[ spawl-deen ]

noun

, Chiefly New York City.

1. a smooth, pink rubber ball used in playing catch, stickball, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of spaldeen¹

Said to be after Spalding a trademark

Example Sentences

All summer long, kids playing punchball—hitting a pink “Spaldeen” ball with your fist and then running bases drawn in chalk on the streets—had tried to steal home to copy Robinson.

From Literature

One resident of the old neighborhood, Michael Meehan, told the filmmakers how he and his friends used to play ball on West 62d Street with a Spaldeen, using sewers as bases.

From New York Times

Another Oompa Loompa came over to inform the two new friends that Tracy Anderson, Ms. Paltrow’s human Spaldeen of a personal trainer, was about to begin a question-and-answer session inside, but they seemed in no particular rush to get out of the California sun.

From New York Times

“I kept them quiet, but I always had stories, very dramatic stories, melodramas, from the time I was 9. I would bounce a pink Spaldeen ball against the side of the house every afternoon and let the stories run around. And then, the next day there would be different stories.”

From Washington Post

Illuminated behind glass walls is an intriguingly eclectic collection, including an arrowhead, a short section of the first trans-Atlantic cable, the pink rubber ball called the Spaldeen and a jar containing dust gathered from near the World Trade Center shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

From New York Times