Word.ws English Dictionary

screwball

/ˈskɹuːbɔːl/

screwball noun: a pitch thrown with added pressure by the index finger and a twisting wrist motion resulting in a motion to the right when thrown by a right-handed pitcher.

Noun

screwball (plural screwballs)

  1. A pitch thrown with added pressure by the index finger and a twisting wrist motion resulting in a motion to the right when thrown by a right-handed pitcher.
    • The screwball is not thrown much because it tends to damage pitcher's arms.
  2. (US, derogatory, informal) One who behaves in a crazy manner.
    • I will not listen to this screwball any longer.
  3. A screwball comedy.

Adjective

screwball (comparative more screwball, superlative most screwball)

  1. (derogatory, informal) Crazy, offbeat, bizarre, zany, or weird.
    • Also a big hand for Silver Linings Playbook, an exuberant modern screwball comedy we had, in an unseemly fit of cynicism, deemed "too entertaining" for Academy voters.2013 January 11, Tom Shone, The Guardian
    • Unleashed as part of the second wave of Nicktoons, Rocko's Modern Life introduced young viewers to the sort of existential crises that adults face daily, all while delighting both kids and grownups with witty observational humor, screwball characters, and subversive gags.2020, Christopher J. Olson, CarrieLynn D. Reinhard, The Greatest Cult Television Shows of All Time, page 170

Forms of screwball

Noun
pluralscrewballs
Adjective
comparativemore screwball
superlativemost screwball

Origin of screwball

From screw + ball. Compare typologically German Spinner (akin to spin). Also compare weirdo and weird, from Old English wyrd (“fate”), ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, to spin”).

Words formed from screwball

Phrases with screwball

Questions about screwball

What does screwball mean?
Screwball means a pitch thrown with added pressure by the index finger and a twisting wrist motion resulting in a motion to the right when thrown by a right-handed pitcher.
What part of speech is screwball?
Screwball can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce screwball?
Screwball is pronounced /ˈskɹuːbɔːl/.
What is the plural of screwball?
The plural of screwball is screwballs.

Words near screwball in the dictionary

  1. screw-yous
  2. screwability
  3. screwable
  4. screwage
  5. screwback
  6. screwball
  7. screwball comedies
  8. screwball comedy
  9. screwballer
  10. screwballers
  11. screwballery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: screwball (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-screwball.ogg.

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