Word.ws English Dictionary

smallball

smallball is the alternative spelling of small ball.

Meaning of small ball

Noun

small ball (uncountable)

  1. (slang) A baseball strategy that relies on baserunning, singles, and hitting for average rather than hitting home runs.
    Antonyms:
    power hitting
  2. (figuratively) Any strategy that involves proceeding by small increments.
    • The result was a new kind of “small ball” platform that confounded Clinton’s cabinet.2022, Chuck Klosterman, The Nineties, New York: Penguin Press, →ISBN

Origin of smallball

From small + ball.

Questions about smallball

What is smallball the alternative spelling of?
Smallball is the alternative spelling of small ball.

Words near smallball in the dictionary

  1. small-world networks
  2. small-world phenomena
  3. small-world phenomenon
  4. small-worldness
  5. smallage
  6. smallball
  7. Smallbone
  8. Smallbones
  9. smallbore
  10. smallbores
  11. Smallbrook

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smallball (page history and authors); small ball (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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Cite this entry: “smallball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smallball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.