How to use handball in a sentence

15 example sentences · noun, verb

Handball means a ball held in, or thrown with, the hand, especially one used for one of the various games in later senses, below. Example: “If the defender handballs in the penalty area, a penalty is awarded.”

Examples of handball by meaning

nounA ball held in, or thrown with, the hand, especially one used for one of the various games in later senses, below.

Cranly took a small grey handball from his pocket and began to examine it closely, turning it over and over.1916, James Joyce, chapter V, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC

nounThe offence of a player other than the goalkeeper touching the ball with the hand or arm on the field during play.

It was a dramatic finish to an absorbing, fast-paced game but Blackburn will be deeply unhappy with referee Anthony Taylor as Nzonzi's handball was harsh.2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport

verbTo illegally touch the ball with the hand or arm.

If the defender handballs in the penalty area, a penalty is awarded.

verbTo (legally) pass a football by holding it with one hand and hitting it with the other.

Meanwhile, you can introduce the basic concept of Aussie rules through a game like lineball, a lead-up game introduced in the basketball section of chapter 10, but with the ball handballed, not thrown.2001, Jerry R. Thomas, Alan G. Launder, Jack K. Nelson, Play Practice: The Games Approach to Teaching and Coaching Sports, page 111
An obvious way in which football has changed over the last decade or two has been in the use of handballing.2005, Andrew McLeod, Trevor D. Jaques, Australian Football: Steps to Success, page 9
On only 8 occasions during the entire match did players who had marked the ball decide not to walk slowly and purposefully back and take their kick, but instead play on by handballing to a team mate.2009, John P. Devaney, Full Points Footy: Encyclopedia of Australian Football Clubs, page 246

verbTo pass responsibility for a task or problem to someone else, often to avoid dealing with an undesirable task or a...

Now six months into the role I have come to learn that the boss’s idea of empowering and delegating is actually handballing or passing off tasks that they actually should be performing themselves.2022 August 26, Jonathan Rivett, “My boss is handballing rather than delegating tasks. What should I do?”, in The Sydney Morning Herald
The shortage has taken time to develop and despite the government trying to handball' the problem to the states, it has happened on its watch.2005 March 17, Bob Hogg, “Paradox of the Howard era”, in Australian Financial Review
I am finding that she's a difficult patient in more ways than one! for that reason I'll handball her off to our senior podiatrist if symptoms persist.2009 June 9, Matt Kimball, “Help with diagnosis and management of localised dorsal midfoot pain.”, in Podiatry Arena

More sentences with handball

There was stickball, there was handball, and there was ringolevio.2023, Colson Whitehead, Crook Manifesto, Fleet, page 56. From the entry ringolevio
So we played a nonregulation one-wall handball game.2012, Richard M. Abrams, Street Games: Bygone Times in Brooklyn. From the entry nonregulation
Chelsea threw away two points when substitute Salomon Kalou gifted Valencia a penalty five minutes from time with a needless handball.2011 September 28, Jon Smith, “Valencia 1 - 1 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport. From the entry gift
It was a beautiful summer Saturday in Central Park, and by late morning, the pickleballers had filled the handball courts in the North Meadow.2023 July 13, Allie Conti, “The Pickleball War of Central Park is Led By 'Paddleball Paul'”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The…. From the entry pickleballer
Every one of those rushed behinds was either kicked, handballed, walked through or deliberately pushed across the line by a Hawthorn player.2016, Martin Blake, Mighty Fighting Hawks. From the entry rushed behind
Clattenburg awarded Spurs a penalty for the third time after a handball in the area but he reneged after realising that the linesman had flagged Crouch offside in the build-up.2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, in BBC. From the entry renege

Meaning of handball

noun A ball held in, or thrown with, the hand, especially one used for one of the various games in later senses, below.
noun The hollow rubber ball squeezed to produce spray from a perfume bottle or other atomizer.
noun Any of various traditional ball games played outside between two goals often at a considerable distance from each other.

Full definition of handball

Questions about handball in a sentence

How do you use handball in a sentence?: Handball is used as a noun and verb. For example: “If the defender handballs in the penalty area, a penalty is awarded.”
What is a short sentence with handball?: “So we played a nonregulation one-wall handball game.”
What does handball mean?: Handball means a ball held in, or thrown with, the hand, especially one used for one of the various games in later senses, below.

Adapted from Wiktionary: handball (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use handball in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/handball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.