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squeeze play
noun
- Baseball.
- Also called suicide squeeze, a play executed when there is a runner on third base and usually not more than one out, in which the runner starts for home as soon as the pitcher makes a motion to pitch, and the batter bunts.
- Also called safety squeeze, a similar play in which the runner on third base waits until the batter has successfully bunted before trying to score.
- the application of pressure or influence on a person or group in order to force compliance or gain an advantage.
Word History and Origins
Origin of squeeze play1
Idioms and Phrases
A situation in which pressure exerted to obtain a concession or achieve a goal, as in Workers sometimes feel caught in a squeeze play between union and management . This expression, dating from about 1900, originated in baseball, where it refers to a prearranged play in which the runner on third base breaks for home plate on the pitch, and the batter bunts. [c. 1915]Example Sentences
In the ninth, the Dodgers put on a squeeze play with runners on the corners and no outs, tying the score when Chris Taylor’s bunt got away from Mets reliever Adam Ottavino.
You might call it a squeeze play: Schiff wanted to keep his two closest Democratic competitors out of the fall race, and he succeeded.
Then Kevin Smith brought in another run on a successful squeeze play.
Douglas Hodo II had an RBI single, and the Longhorns scored on a squeeze play and wild pitch.
Rangers reliever Dennis Santana made a heads-up defensive play to prevent the A’s from pulling off a squeeze play in the fifth.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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