Word.ws English Dictionary

got the ball rolling

got the ball rolling is the simple past of get the ball rolling.

got the ball rolling is the past participle 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 got the ball rolling

What is got the ball rolling the simple past of?
Got the ball rolling is the simple past of get the ball rolling.

Words near got the ball rolling in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: got 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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