Word.ws English Dictionary

Colemanballs

Colemanballs noun: a malapropism, mixed metaphor or other humorous misspeaking, especially in sports commentary.

Noun

Colemanballs (countable and uncountable, plural Colemanballs)

  1. (UK) A malapropism, mixed metaphor or other humorous misspeaking, especially in sports commentary.
    • On a point of order, Miss Fookes. Is it in order for my hon. Friend to use a Colemanballs in this Committee?1984, Brian Sedgemore, “Official Report of the Standing Committees: Session 1983–1984”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons, Parliament of the United Kingdom), volume 2, page 95, column 1
    • British TV viewers may think themselves lucky that all they got for commentary on the last Olympics was the usual load of Colemanballs1987 October 16, Rayner Banham, “On the Wings of Wonder”, in New Society, volume 82, number 1294, pages 18–20
    Synonyms:
    Yogiism

Examples of Colemanballs in a sentence

  • It is footballers though, rather than commentators, presenters or pundits, who when interviewed have provided some of the best Colemanballs.2004, George Best, Scoring At Half-Time: Adventures On and Off the Pitch, →ISBN, page 259:
  • He had made a Colemanballs with "The Scots are still refusing to meet us in Belfast, so we may have to compromise on this and meet them halfway."2011, Bob Bevan, Nearly Famous: Adventures of an After-Dinner Speaker, →ISBN:

Synonyms of Colemanballs

Forms of Colemanballs

pluralColemanballs

Origin of Colemanballs

From Coleman + balls (“nonsense”), from the football commentator David Coleman. Originally the title of a column in Private Eye magazine collecting mistakes in sports commentary.

Questions about Colemanballs

What does Colemanballs mean?
Colemanballs means a malapropism, mixed metaphor or other humorous misspeaking, especially in sports commentary.
How do you use Colemanballs in a sentence?
It is footballers though, rather than commentators, presenters or pundits, who when interviewed have provided some of the best Colemanballs.
What part of speech is Colemanballs?
Colemanballs is a noun.
What is the plural of Colemanballs?
The plural of Colemanballs is Colemanballs.

Words near Colemanballs in the dictionary

  1. Colello
  2. Colellos
  3. Colemak
  4. Coleman
  5. Coleman County
  6. Colemanballs
  7. colemanite
  8. colemanites
  9. colembolan
  10. colembolans
  11. colemouse

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Colemanballs (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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Cite this entry: “Colemanballs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/colemanballs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.