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Glite Dictionary
💼 Tough tactics ⚾ A baseball game
hardball

hardball

9 4.7
A version of baseball played with a hard ball rather than softball
  • noun
  • /ˈhɑrdˌbɔl/
  • US
translation icon : béisbol
  • John played hardball.
  • played hardball
  • threw a hardball
  • game of hardball

Examples

  • I've been playing hardball since before you were born.

    True Colors (1991)

  • The air filled with the pop of the hardball on a leather glove.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • I played hardball every night till dark.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • We're playing hardball with Andrew Shepherd, and we need a heavy bat.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • We've been playing softball, so let's play hardball right back.

  • Did you play hardball?

    Shadow Creature (1995)

  • I knew the distance because the summer before, Bobby Vaccaro bet me I couldn't reach his building from ours with a hardball.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • He loves to play hardball in the local baseball league every summer.

  • The sound of the hardball hitting the bat echoed across the field.

  • During the playoffs, many teams prefer to play hardball to showcase their skills.

Synonyms

ball
vshardball
  • Informal
462 6.3

The game of baseball often played for fun

is the specific form of baseball contrasted with softball

Antonyms

softball
79 1.1

A game like baseball played on a smaller field with a larger ball

Surface Forms

hardball singular
hardballs plural

Morphology

hardball = hard + ball (transparent) = hard + ball

Literal compound 'hard' + 'ball' where the meaning 'a ball that is hard' is directly inferable.

Etymology

The word hardball originally names a form of baseball played with a hard ball, not a soft one. The parts hard ('firm') and ball ('game ball') make the meaning clear, so hardball simply means the game played with a hard ball.