Word.ws English Dictionary

taking one's eye off the ball

taking one's eye off the ball is the present participle and gerund of take one's eye off the ball.

Meaning of take one's eye off the ball

Verb

take one's eye off the ball (third-person singular simple present takes one's eye off the ball, present participle taking one's eye off the ball, simple past took one's eye off the ball, past participle taken one's eye off the ball)

  1. (idiomatic) To lose one's concentration on what is most important.
    • One of the keys to success in business is never to take your eye off the ball.

Questions about taking one's eye off the ball

What is taking one's eye off the ball the present participle and gerund of?
Taking one's eye off the ball is the present participle and gerund of take one's eye off the ball.

Words near taking one's eye off the ball in the dictionary

  1. taking one's chance
  2. taking one's courage in both hands
  3. taking one's cue from
  4. taking one's custom elsewhere
  5. taking one's ease
  6. taking one's eye off the ball
  7. taking one's eyes off
  8. taking one's eyes off the ball
  9. taking one's half out of the middle
  10. taking one's hat off to
  11. taking one's hook

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking one's eye off the ball (page history and authors); take one's eye off the 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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