noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Something which becomes muddled or botched in some way. Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang, vulgar

   "I was making a cake but when I added too much sugar, it became the balls-up of my cooking career."

2. 2
   something badly botched or muddled wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

ballupmess-upcock-upcockup

Example

More examples

"I was making a cake but when I added too much sugar, it became the balls-up of my cooking career."

Etymology

Balls in this sense refers to testicles. See also the verb, to balls up and go balls up.

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