Word.ws English Dictionary

dropping the ball

dropping the ball is the present participle and gerund 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 dropping the ball

What is dropping the ball the present participle and gerund of?
Dropping the ball is the present participle and gerund of drop the ball.

Words near dropping the ball in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dropping 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: “dropping the ball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dropping_the_ball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.