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Glite Dictionary
to bowl a googly

to bowl a googly

9.9
To spin the ball in cricket so it turns the other way to confuse the batsman
  • phrasal verb
  • Jargon
translation icon : lanzar un googly
  • It's difficult for most right-handed batsmen to read when you bowl a googly.

Examples

  • When you bowl a googly, the ball spins in an unexpected direction, making it hard to hit.

  • She trained hard to bowl a googly and surprise the batsmen during the final.

  • During practice, he learned how to bowl a googly effectively.

  • Did you see him bowl a googly?

  • The bowler bowls a googly to surprise the batsman.

  • In cricket, a skilled player can effectively bowl a googly to confuse the batsman.

  • She practiced for weeks to bowl a googly that would catch the batsman off guard.

Surface Forms

bowl a googly infinitive
bowled a googly past
bowled a googly past participle
bowling a googly present participle
bowls a googly third person singular

Morphology

bowl + a + googly

The meaning is directly compositional: 'bowl' means to deliver a ball and 'googly' denotes a deceptive cricket delivery, so 'bowl a googly' straightforwardly means to deliver that specific deceptive ball. The structure is a common verb + article + noun pattern, making the MWE predictable for a B1 learner who already knows the specialized noun 'googly'.

Etymology

Bowl a googly comes from cricket: a bowler sends a ball called a googly that looks like a normal spin but secretly turns the other way and fools the batsman. So, bowl a googly means 'to send a tricky spinning ball to fool the batsman'.