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screwball

American  
[skroo-bawl] / ˈskruˌbɔl /

noun

  1. Slang. an eccentric or irrational person; a nut.

    When the FBI first looked into him, they thought he was a harmless screwball.

  2. Baseball. a pitched ball that curves toward the side of the plate from which it was thrown, in a trajectory opposite to that of a curve ball.

    Has the once popular screwball vanished completely from the major leagues?

adjective

  1. Slang. eccentric or irrational; nutty.

    What a screwball idea!
screwball British  
/ ˈskruːˌbɔːl /

noun

  1. an odd or eccentric person

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

  1. odd; zany; eccentric

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of screwball

First recorded in 1865–70; in 1935–40 screwball for def. 2; screw + ball 1

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.