Word.ws English Dictionary

dropped the ball

dropped the ball is the simple past and past participle of drop the ball.

Meaning of drop the ball

Verb

drop the ball (third-person singular simple present drops the ball, present participle dropping the ball, simple past and past participle dropped the ball)

  1. (idiomatic) To fail in one's responsibilities or duties, or to make a mistake, especially at a critical point or when the result is very negative.
    • The movie ought to sputter out here, but Crowe and Cruise don't drop the ball.1996 Dec. 13, Peter Stack, "Tom and ‘Jerry’ Make a Great Team" (film review of Jerry Maguire), San Francisco Chronicle (retrieved 21 Sept 2013)
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see drop, ball.

Questions about dropped the ball

What is dropped the ball the simple past and past participle of?
Dropped the ball is the simple past and past participle of drop the ball.

Words near dropped the ball in the dictionary

  1. dropped round
  2. dropped scone
  3. dropped scones
  4. dropped someone a line
  5. dropped someone in it
  6. dropped the ball
  7. dropped the bomb
  8. dropped the f-bomb
  9. dropped the gloves
  10. dropped the H-bomb
  11. dropped the hammer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dropped the ball (page history and authors); drop the 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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Cite this entry: “dropped the ball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dropped_the_ball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.