Word.ws English Dictionary

airball

airball noun: a shot that misses the backboard, rim and net entirely.

Noun

airball (plural airballs)

  1. A shot that misses the backboard, rim and net entirely.
    • As soon as the shot left his hands, the spectators could see it was going to be an airball.
    • Johnson also could have tied the game, at 66-66 with 14 seconds left. But his jump shot was an airball. From that scramble Lopez emerged with the first of his key foul shots.1990 April 3, David Levine, “COLLEGE BASKETBALL; Fordham Defeats Iona to Advance”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 25 May 2015
  2. (slang) An unfunny joke or remark.

Verb

airball (third-person singular simple present airballs, present participle airballing, simple past and past participle airballed)

  1. (transitive) To throw an airball.
    • Tatum struggled with fatigue through the final two rounds of the postseason and was exhausted to the point he was airballing shots by the time the Warriors were closing out the championship.2022 August 8, Jared Weiss, “Jayson Tatum opens up on lessons from Celtics’ finals loss, Kevin Durant trade”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2025
    • The Timberwolves lost 128-125 when KAT airballed a falling 30-footer at the buzzer.2024 January 23, Zach Harper and Shams Charania, “Joel Embiid’s 70-point NBA welcome to Victor Wembanyama. Plus, Shams on Heat-Hornets trade”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08...
  2. (slang) To make an awfully unfunny joke or remark.

airball meaning in Tamil

airball in Tamil

இலக்கு எய்தாப் பந்து

Forms of airball

Noun
pluralairballs
alternative formair ball
Verb
third-person singular presentairballs
present participleairballing
past participleairballed
pastairballed

Origin of airball

* From air + ball. * The first recorded use of the "airball" chant was on February 24, 1979, during a college basketball game between the Duke University Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels after the Tar Heels' Rich Yonakor took a shot which missed the rim.

Questions about airball

What does airball mean?
Airball means a shot that misses the backboard, rim and net entirely.
What is airball in Tamil?
Airball in Tamil is இலக்கு எய்தாப் பந்து. See Airball meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is airball?
Airball can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of airball?
The plural of airball is airballs.

Words near airball in the dictionary

  1. Airavata
  2. airbag
  3. airbagged
  4. airbagless
  5. airbags
  6. airball
  7. airballed
  8. airballing
  9. airballs
  10. airband
  11. airbands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: airball (page history and authors); airball (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “airball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/airball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.