Slowball

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A pitch that is not a fastball or curveball; often a change-up.
  2. 2
    Steady, cautionary behavior as a delaying tactic.

    "“We imagine that the Russians and the Chinese are going to play slowball here,” said a senior official involved in the sanctions talks."

  3. 3
    An easy or obvious target.

    "Remember: In work problems, use your common sense to narrow down answer choices! Now we're going to throw a "slowball" at you."

Verb
  1. 1
    To pitch a slowball.
  2. 2
    To delay something for personal advantage.

    "A prolonged study is frequently a method of slowballing an investigation until the Senators or Congress who are interested pass from the political scene."

Synonyms

All synonyms
foot draggingfoot-dragging

Example

More examples

"“We imagine that the Russians and the Chinese are going to play slowball here,” said a senior official involved in the sanctions talks."

Etymology

From slow + ball.

Related phrases

change upslow walk

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