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Glite Dictionary
base on balls

base on balls

1 5.5
An advance to first base after a batter receives four pitches outside the strike zone
  • noun
  • /beɪs ɒn bɔlz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : base por bolas
  • The batter reached first base after receiving a base on balls from the pitcher.
  • two bases on balls

Examples

  • It takes account of bases on balls, sacrifice flies, hits, and being hit by a pitch by removing these outcomes from the total of "at-bats" in the denominator.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Walk off base on balls.

    Eephus (2025)

  • Were they like the rules that establish that we get a base on balls after four pitches wide of the strike zone?

    Academic text (1990)

  • Cleanup man leads with a base on balls in the second.

    Blog text (10)

  • We went a year and a half here where we led all of baseball with on-base percentage and bases on balls.

    Blog text (32)

  • Not so this go round, with Giants pitchers 12th in K's and a respectable fifth in bases on balls.

    Blog text (10)

  • Jenna and Ali Rivoira each drew walks and scored a run in the championship game, while Tamhja Coe displayed a good eye at the plate and led the Tigers by drawing two bases on balls.

    Blog text (24)

  • In this game, the team scored three runs after two players got a base on balls.

  • He celebrated his achievement of leading the league in base on balls this season.

Synonyms

walk
vsbase on balls
  • Jargon
33 7.0

When a batter goes to first base after four balls

means the same play but is named with alternative wording in official usage

Antonyms

out
  • Jargon
530 7.5

An event where a batter or runner is removed from play in baseball

Surface Forms

base on balls singular
bases on balls plural

Morphology

base + on + ball

This is a sport-specific technical term: knowing 'base', 'on', and 'ball' does not let a B1 learner infer the rule-based meaning (an advance to first base after four pitches outside the strike zone). The construction is jargon tied to baseball rules rather than a productive compositional pattern, so the overall meaning is not predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

Base on balls comes from the simple picture of a batter getting four thrown balls that are not strikes and then walking to a base without hitting. So it means 'to go to first base after four balls'.