balled up

Verb

ball up (third-person singular simple present balls up, present participle balling up, simple past and past participle balled up)

1. (transitive) To crush or form into a ball shape.
   • She balled up her paper in frustration.
   1. (transitive) To form melted metals into balls or lumps to roll them out of a furnace for further use.
2. (ambitransitive) To coil up into a ball.
   • He balled up his fists, ready to fight.
3. (intransitive) To become ball-shaped.
   • Be careful, or the metal will ball up.
4. (intransitive) To hunch over and pull in one's arms and legs.
   • Her son balls up in fear whenever there is a storm.
5. (slang, transitive) To ruin or botch.
   • The best man balled up his speech, stammering and tripping over his words.

   Synonyms:

   balls up, blight, bumble, botch, bugger up, bungle, contaminate, corrupt, crab, deprave

See all 12 meanings of ball up