Word.ws English Dictionary

left the ball in someone's court

left the ball in someone's court is the simple past and past participle 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 left the ball in someone's court

What is left the ball in someone's court the simple past and past participle of?
Left the ball in someone's court is the simple past and past participle of leave the ball in someone's court.

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

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: left 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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