Colemanballs

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A malapropism, mixed metaphor or other humorous misspeaking, especially in sports commentary. UK

    "On a point of order, Miss Fookes. Is it in order for my hon. Friend to use a Colemanballs in this Committee?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
yogiism

Example

More examples

"On a point of order, Miss Fookes. Is it in order for my hon. Friend to use a Colemanballs in this Committee?"

Etymology

From Coleman + balls (“nonsense”), from the football commentator David Coleman. Originally the title of a column in Private Eye magazine collecting mistakes in sports commentary.

Related phrases

mixed metaphor

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.