Word.ws English Dictionary

leaves the ball in someone's court

leaves the ball in someone's court is the third-person singular simple present indicative of leave the ball in someone's court.

Meaning of leave the ball in someone's court

Verb

leave the ball in someone's court (third-person singular simple present leaves the ball in someone's court, present participle leaving the ball in someone's court, simple past and past participle left the ball in someone's court)

  1. (idiomatic) To hand over the responsibility or choice to someone to make a decision or take action about something.
    • His statement also left the ball in the Security Council’s court, for it is scheduled to discuss the report in August. Saudi Arabia has powerful backers on the Council, including the United States.2016 June 22, Somini Sengupta, “Saudis Question U.N. Leader Over Report on Rights Violators”, in The New York Times

Questions about leaves the ball in someone's court

What is leaves the ball in someone's court the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Leaves the ball in someone's court is the third-person singular simple present indicative of leave the ball in someone's court.

Words near leaves the ball in someone's court in the dictionary

  1. leaves someone on seen
  2. leaves someone out in the cold
  3. leaves someone to their fate
  4. leaves someone to their own devices
  5. leaves something to be desired
  6. leaves the ball in someone's court
  7. leaves the chat
  8. leaves the door open
  9. leaves the nest
  10. leaves things alone
  11. leaves things be

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leaves the ball in someone's court (page history and authors); leave the ball in someone's court (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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