keep one's eye on the ball
keep one's eye on the ball verb: to maintain one's concentration fixed on one important theme.
Verb
keep one's eye on the ball (third-person singular simple present keeps one's eye on the ball, present participle keeping one's eye on the ball, simple past and past participle kept one's eye on the ball)
- To maintain one's concentration fixed on one important theme.
- My ethos has always been to be very straight with people, tell it as it is. It doesn't often make people happy but I found that over a period of time it's better to be that way. So being straight, also being very focused on your objectives, keep your eye on the ball and not get deflected away from...2006 Feb 18, Michael Holden quoting Sir Alan Sugar in The Guardian, You can call me Sir Al
Antonyms of keep one's eye on the ball
Forms of keep one's eye on the ball
| third-person singular present | keeps one's eye on the ball |
|---|---|
| present participle | keeping one's eye on the ball |
| past participle | kept one's eye on the ball |
| past | kept one's eye on the ball |
| alternative form | keep one's eyes on the ball |
Origin of keep one's eye on the ball
From general sporting advice to look at the ball when playing it, particularly a golf ball on the tee.
Questions about keep one's eye on the ball
- What does keep one's eye on the ball mean?
- Keep one's eye on the ball means to maintain one's concentration fixed on one important theme.
- What part of speech is keep one's eye on the ball?
- Keep one's eye on the ball is a verb.
- What is the past tense of keep one's eye on the ball?
- The past tense of keep one's eye on the ball is kept one's eye on the ball.
Words near keep one's eye on the ball in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: keep one's eye on 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-keep one's eye on the ball.ogg.
Cite this entry: “keep one's eye on the ball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keep_one%27s_eye_on_the_ball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.