knuckleballer
- noun
- /ˈnʌkəlˌbɔːlər/
- Informal
:
persona impredecible
- Her reputation as a knuckleballer made her both exciting and difficult to work with.
Examples
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He is such a knuckleballer in meetings!
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The team's new manager is a real knuckleballer, always surprising everyone with his decisions.
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No one knew what the knuckleballer would do next at the meeting.
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The knuckleballer surprised everyone with his antics.
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He is a true knuckleballer; you never know how he will react in any situation.
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In the office, she's a knuckleballer, always coming up with surprising solutions to problems.
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Known for his unpredictable antics, everyone agrees that he's a real knuckleballer at heart.
Synonyms
21
7.2
A person who acts in a strange way
19
7.4
A person who acts unpredictably and can cause problems
5
8.3
A person who behaves in a strange, silly way
4
9.9
A person who behaves very strangely
A person or thing that often makes choices people cannot predict
Antonyms
How Unpredictable
Surface Forms
Morphology
knuckleballer = knuckleball (opaque) = knuckle + ball + er
Although the form is built from 'knuckleball' plus '-er', the figurative sense 'an unpredictable person' is a metaphorical extension rather than a standard agentive meaning.
Etymology
Knuckleballer comes from knuckle and ball, from the baseball pitch that seems to wobble and change direction in a 'surprising' way. So calling someone a knuckleballer means they are unpredictable or do things in an unexpected way.