Word.ws English Dictionary

balls-up

balls-up noun: something which becomes muddled or botched in some way.

Noun

balls-up (plural balls-ups)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang, vulgar) Something which becomes muddled or botched in some way.
    • I was making a cake but when I added too much sugar, it became the balls-up of my cooking career.
    Synonyms:
    ballup, cock-up, mess-up

Synonyms of balls-up

Forms of balls-up

pluralballs-ups

Origin of balls-up

Balls in this sense refers to testicles. See also the verb, to balls up and go balls up.

Questions about balls-up

What does balls-up mean?
Balls-up means something which becomes muddled or botched in some way.
What part of speech is balls-up?
Balls-up is a noun.
What is the plural of balls-up?
The plural of balls-up is balls-ups.

Words near balls-up in the dictionary

  1. balls up
  2. balls-deep
  3. balls-out
  4. balls-to-the-wall
  5. balls-to-the-walls
  6. balls-up
  7. balls-ups
  8. ballsac
  9. ballsache
  10. ballsaches
  11. ballsack

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: balls-up (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-balls-up.ogg.

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