to get the ball rolling
17
2.8
- phrasal verb
- Okay, so maybe Joe didn't save mankind, but he got the ball rolling, and that's pretty good for an average guy.
- just get the ball rolling
- let's get the ball rolling
- really get the ball rolling
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Watch on YouTubeLike, they are the ones who get the ball rolling if they're alone.
- Like, they are the ones who get the ball rolling if they're alone.
- I can get the ball rolling just by myself, and then I can go do it.
- And with Instagram, it's just a lot harder to get the ball rolling.
- And the most important people to initially get the ball rolling when it comes to running government is Congress.
- But if you take a sufficiently small first step and get the ball rolling, you can be cruising along at a pretty good rate, generally faster than you'll think.
- But the point is you can start get the ball rolling.
- And it may be small, but that's, you know, that's, that's all I need to, to get the ball rolling.
- And it finally, you know, I got the ball rolling in the summer and I brought on my my creative director, project manager, just fucking backbone of the whole thing.
Examples
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Now's as good a time as any to get the ball rolling.
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That's great, I want to do everything to get the ball rolling on this project.
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OK, get the ball rolling and and test the concept right. If people love this idea of late night delivery of cookies
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I just need to get the ball rolling, as it were.
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Can I get the ball rolling?
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Let's get the ball rolling with this first.
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I'm meeting with the management of one of the delivery firms today to get the ball rolling fast.
Fiction book (1998) -
Building coalitions take time, but I thought it was important to get the ball rolling right away.
Blog text (34) -
Maybe you'd like to make an exploratory offer just to get the ball rolling.
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We should get the ball rolling on the new advertising campaign right away.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To begin an action, event or process
∞
1.0
To start an activity, event, or speech
774
1.8
To begin doing something, for example a task or meeting
598
2.3
To start doing something or to leave
416
2.0
To start doing your job, often after a delay
347
4.5
To start something such as a project or discussion
168
3.5
To start an event or activity, often officially
48
3.5
To make something begin to move or happen
44
3.5
To start moving or begin working on something
29
4.2
Start a project or business successfully so it begins to work
28
3.8
To start an event or activity, for example a speech
23
3.8
To be the first to act to make something happen
13
5.8
Start working quickly and with energy
4
3.8
To start something quickly and give it extra energy to grow
1
4.9
Start a series of actions that lead to later changes
1
9.7
To start working hard without delay
1
5.1
To start a project or activity
1
7.7
To start doing something quickly
Begin something very quickly and with a lot of energy
Antonyms
How Energetic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase evokes the literal image of making a ball roll, which plausibly maps onto initiating movement or action, so a learner who knows 'get', 'ball', and 'rolling' can infer a sense of 'start' by metaphorical extension. However, the meaning is a conventionalized metaphor rather than strictly compositional and requires inferencing about initiating a process, so it is not fully transparent to an average B1 learner.
Etymology
Get the ball rolling shows a simple picture: someone pushes a ball so it begins rolling, and that first move makes an activity begin. That's why it means 'to start' something.