🛡️ A protective layer 🚢 A large ship ⚾ A hard hit 🧥 An inner fabric

liner

19 3.9

A hard, fast baseball hit that flies low and straight

noun
/ˈlaɪnər/

Jargon

: batazo por la línea

I mean, hit a screamin' liner right past my head.

Examples

Norichika Aoki made a tumbling, diving catch on a sinking liner to end the inning.

Blog text (23)
Luis Valbuena misplayed a one-hop liner off the bat of Buster Posey into a single.

Blog text (6)
The batter hit a hard liner that zoomed past the infielders.
During the game, he caught a sharp liner coming towards him from the opposing team.
She described her favorite moment as hitting a solid liner that rolled straight to the outfield.

Synonyms

line drive

vsliner

12 4.2

A hard hit in baseball that flies straight and low

is the same but emphasizes the trajectory being parallel to the ground

Compounds

one-liner

Informal

15 3.9

A short clever joke that fits in one line

ocean liner

6 3.6

A large ship that carries people and things on long sea trips

cruise liner

4 3.2

A large passenger ship for holiday trips with food, pools, and shows on board

luxury liner

3 4.0

A large ship with very comfortable rooms and extra services for passengers

bin liner

1 1.5

A plastic bag placed inside a bin to keep it clean and hold waste

one-liner

Specialized

1 4.2

A single line of code that does a small useful task

cabin liner

5.2

A passenger ship with private cabins for travelers

cargo liner

4.8

A large ship that carries goods on regular routes at set times

express luxury liner

5.1

A large fast passenger ship that has very comfortable rooms and many services

freight liner

5.2

A long fast train that carries goods between factories and ports

liner train

Specialized

5.6

A fast train that carries goods over long distances between factories and seaports and loads quickly

party liner

8.4

A person who always supports their political party's official views without question

penny-a-liner

Offensive

9.9

A writer who makes many bad articles for little pay

How Hard

liner

Jargon

19 3.9

plunk

Jargon

7.8

bunt

Jargon

7 6.2

Surface Forms

liner singular

liners plural

Morphology

liner = line (semi-transparent) = line + er

The form is clearly based on 'line' + '-er', but the baseball meaning is a specialized extension rather than a fully compositional everyday meaning.

Etymology

Liner comes from the simple word line, which means 'a straight path', and it is short for 'line drive', a ball hit sharply in a straight, low path; so a liner in baseball is a fast, straight-hit ball.