Word.ws English Dictionary

getting the ball rolling

getting the ball rolling is the present participle and gerund of get the ball rolling.

Meaning of get the ball rolling

Verb

get the ball rolling (third-person singular simple present gets the ball rolling, present participle getting the ball rolling, simple past got the ball rolling, past participle (UK) got the ball rolling or (US) gotten the ball rolling)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To begin; to start some action; to set in motion.
    • Did you ever get the ball rolling on your plans to build a shed?

Questions about getting the ball rolling

What is getting the ball rolling the present participle and gerund of?
Getting the ball rolling is the present participle and gerund of get the ball rolling.

Words near getting the ball rolling in the dictionary

  1. getting straight
  2. getting stuck in
  3. getting stuck into
  4. getting sturdy
  5. getting taken in
  6. getting the ball rolling
  7. getting the band back together
  8. getting the best of
  9. getting the better of
  10. getting the bird
  11. getting the boot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting the ball rolling (page history and authors); get the ball rolling (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: “getting the ball rolling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/getting_the_ball_rolling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.