Screwball
//ˈskɹuːbɔːl// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A pitch thrown with added pressure by the index finger and a twisting wrist motion resulting in a motion to the right when thrown by a right-handed pitcher.
"The screwball is not thrown much because it tends to damage pitcher's arms."
- 2 a pitch with reverse spin that curves toward the side of the plate from which it was thrown wordnet
- 3 One who behaves in a crazy manner. US
"I will not listen to this screwball any longer."
- 4 a whimsically eccentric person wordnet
- 5 A screwball comedy.
Adjective
- 1 Crazy, offbeat, bizarre, zany, or weird.
"Also a big hand for Silver Linings Playbook, an exuberant modern screwball comedy we had, in an unseemly fit of cynicism, deemed "too entertaining" for Academy voters."
Adjective
- 1 foolish; totally unsound wordnet
Example
More examples"The screwball is not thrown much because it tends to damage pitcher's arms."
Etymology
From screw + ball. Compare typologically German Spinner (akin to spin). Also compare weirdo, weird (ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *wert-).
Related phrases
More for "screwball"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.