cup-and-balls

Noun

cup-and-ball (plural cup-and-balls or cups-and-balls)

1. A traditional children's toy consisting of a hand-held wooden cup with a ball attached by a string. The player jerks the ball into the air and attempts to catch it in the cup.
   • When I was at Motiers, I used to employ myself in making laces with my neighbors, and were I again to mix with the world, I would always carry a cup-and-ball in my pocket; I should sometimes play with it the whole day, that I might not be constrained to speak when I had nothing to discourse about...1782, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by Samuel William Orson, The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Book V, published 1903

   Synonyms:

   bilboquet