netball

Noun

netball (countable and uncountable, plural netballs)

1. (uncountable) A (usually women's) team sport derived from basketball, with seven players on each side who attempt to score goals by passing a ball and throwing it into the opponent's goal, which is a raised hoop with a net at one end of the playing area. Unlike basketball, a player in possession of the ball cannot move until the ball is passed to another player.
   • Some excellent photographs are taken of [...] members of the athletic club, "net-ball," "foot-ball," etc., [...]1913 January 15, “Personal and Official”, in C. W. Hastings, editor, The Gas Engineer’s Magazine and Gas Industries, volume XXIX, number 441, London: J. G. Hammond & Co., →OCLC, page 13, column 2
   • The next events were ones in which selected members of squads participated while the other members watched and cheered. These were net ball, hockey, tennis, and swimming, and followed in the order given.1928 February, “News Notes. A Successful College Play Day.”, in James Huff McCurdy, editor, American Physical Education Review, volume XXXIII, number 2 (number 234 overall), Springfield, Mass....
2. (countable) The ball used in this sport.
   • Over the years he had stitched Dr. Bailey's black bag, Paul's pram hood, the net balls at the village school, and saddles and bridles for Joan and Ruth when they were small, and kept in trim the footwear that passed and repassed his window as the various owners went about their business on Thrush...1959, “Miss Read” [pseudonym; Dora Jessie Saint], “Sam Curdle is Tempted”, in Thrush Green, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company […], published 1960, →OCLC, part 2 (Afternoon), page 122
   • 'If we could find our netball, you could borrow it,' she said softly. / 'A netball!' he said in disgust. 'A netball is no use. It is not heavy enough. But I would borrow it,' he added quickly. 'It would be better than no ball at all.'1992, Eileen Molver, chapter 1, in Rod Nesbitt, editor, Lindiwi Finds a Way, Oxford, Oxfordshire; Gaborone, Botswana: Heinemann Educational Publishers, →ISBN, page 2