Word.ws English Dictionary

patball

patball noun: a particular children's ball game played against a wall with a tennis ball.

Noun

patball (uncountable)

  1. A particular children's ball game played against a wall with a tennis ball.
  2. (figuratively) A back-and-forth situation.
    • Opposite him sat Peter Thorneycroft and the patball went on and on and on. It's as though one hadn't left off last July - the same sort of professional debating, two heavyweights in a clinch because neither wants to knock the other out […]1981, Richard Howard Stafford Crossman, The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman, Holmes & Meier Pub
  3. (countable) The ball used in the game of patball.
  4. (figuratively) A pawn, a football.
    • Don't you know that your very best friend is being made somebody's patball?2003, Lindsey Davis, The Accusers, Century, →ISBN

Forms of patball

alternative formpat-ball

Origin of patball

From pat + ball.

Words formed from patball

Questions about patball

What does patball mean?
Patball means a particular children's ball game played against a wall with a tennis ball.
What part of speech is patball?
Patball is a noun.

Words near patball in the dictionary

  1. patavinities
  2. patavinity
  3. patawa
  4. Patayan
  5. Patayans
  6. patball
  7. patballer
  8. patballers
  9. patch
  10. patch bay
  11. patch bays

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: patball (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:

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