Word.ws English Dictionary

catch no ball

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Singapore/ˈkɛt͡ʃ no bɔː(l)/

catch no ball phrase: to fail to understand something; be unable to comprehend what others are saying.

Phrase

catch no ball

  1. (Malaysia, Singapore, colloquial) To fail to understand something; be unable to comprehend what others are saying.
    • Being someone who doesn't understand Hokkien, I catch no ball as to what you say :-).1992 March 19, soc.culture.asean (Usenet)
    • Ah! I see the problem. Fearless is only semi-literate. In which case, I can understand why he catch no ball. I guess we must ALL show patience to the slow-witted.1999 April 29, soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet)

Forms of catch no ball

alternative formcatch no balls

Origin of catch no ball

Calque of Hokkien 掠無球 /掠无球 (lia̍h bô kiû, “to not understand”, literally “catch no ball”).

Questions about catch no ball

What does catch no ball mean?
Catch no ball means to fail to understand something; be unable to comprehend what others are saying.
What part of speech is catch no ball?
Catch no ball is a phrase.
How do you pronounce catch no ball?
Catch no ball is pronounced /ˈkɛt͡ʃ no bɔː(l)/ (Singapore).

Words near catch no ball in the dictionary

  1. catch it
  2. catch it in the neck
  3. catch lacking
  4. catch me
  5. catch napping
  6. catch no ball
  7. catch no balls
  8. catch of the day
  9. catch on
  10. catch on fire
  11. catch one's breath

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catch no ball (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.

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