Patball
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A particular children's ball game played against a wall with a tennis ball. uncountable
- 2 A back-and-forth situation. figuratively, uncountable
"Opposite him sat Peter Thorneycroft and the patball went on and on and on. It's as though one hadn't left off last July - the same sort of professional debating, two heavyweights in a clinch because neither wants to knock the other out […]"
- 3 The ball used in the game of patball. countable
- 4 A pawn, a football. figuratively, uncountable
"Don't you know that your very best friend is being made somebody's patball?"
Example
More examples"Opposite him sat Peter Thorneycroft and the patball went on and on and on. It's as though one hadn't left off last July - the same sort of professional debating, two heavyweights in a clinch because neither wants to knock the other out […]"
Etymology
From pat + ball.
Related phrases
More for "patball"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.