balls

/ bɔːlz /

plural noun

1. the testicles
2. by the balls
   so as to be rendered powerless
3. nonsense; rubbish
4. courage; forcefulness

interjection

1. an exclamation of strong disagreement, contempt, annoyance, etc

Usage

Both its anatomical senses and its various extended senses nowadays have far less impact than they used to, and seem unlikely to cause offence, though some older or more conservative people may object. Interestingly, its use in the sense of courage is exactly paralleled in the Spanish term «cojones»

Example Sentences

When Johnson rose from relative obscurity to the Speaker position, one of the few pieces of information that journalists dug up was that he had been in a documentary about "purity balls" in 2015.

From Salon

The shorter balls allowed Van de Zandschulp, who is ranked 80th in the world but beat Carlos Alcaraz at the US Open, to pick off his opponent.

From BBC

“We have to keep doing a better job of executing on third down. There are a couple of balls that I’d love to have back and rethrow.”

From Los Angeles Times

But rather than fix it, the owner sends balls of dough to another firm that shoves them in a working oven and sells the loaves back to the baker.

From BBC

The equation was 23 from 21 balls by the time Powell fell lbw to Turner, which was achieved with relative ease by Rutherford and Roston Chase to complete a perfectly-executed chase.

From BBC

Related Words

• arrogance
• audacity
• boldness
• gall