Word.ws English Dictionary

have a ball

have a ball verb: to enjoy oneself thoroughly; to have lots of fun or excitement.

Verb

have a ball (third-person singular simple present has a ball, present participle having a ball, simple past and past participle had a ball)

  1. (idiomatic) To enjoy oneself thoroughly; to have lots of fun or excitement.
    • The kids had a ball playing in the fountain.
    • Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall? / It's the time that every Santa has a ball / Does he ride a red-nosed reindeer? / Does a ton up on his sleigh / Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?1973, “Merry Xmas Everybody”, performed by Slade

Examples of have a ball in a sentence

  • In my dreams I have a plan / If I got me a wealthy man / I wouldn't have to work at all, I'd fool around and have a ball1976, “Money, Money, Money”, performed by ABBA:
  • Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday / Today i-is Friday, Friday / We-we-we so excited / We so excited / We gonna have a ball today2011, “Friday”, performed by Rebecca Black ft. Patrice Wilson:

Synonyms of have a ball

Forms of have a ball

third-person singular presenthas a ball
present participlehaving a ball
past participlehad a ball
pasthad a ball

Origin of have a ball

Likely from ball in the sense of a dance.

Questions about have a ball

What does have a ball mean?
Have a ball means to enjoy oneself thoroughly; to have lots of fun or excitement.
How do you use have a ball in a sentence?
In my dreams I have a plan / If I got me a wealthy man / I wouldn't have to work at all, I'd fool around and have a ball
What part of speech is have a ball?
Have a ball is a verb.
What is the past tense of have a ball?
The past tense of have a ball is had a ball.

Words near have a ball in the dictionary

  1. Havdala
  2. Havdalah
  3. Havdoloh
  4. have
  5. have a bad time of it
  6. have a ball
  7. have a bar of it
  8. have a bird
  9. have a bite
  10. have a blessed one
  11. have a bone in one's leg

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have a 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-have a ball.ogg.

Cite this entry: “have a ball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/have_a_ball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.