·noun The globe or earth.
II. Ball ·noun A social assembly for the purpose of dancing.
III. Ball ·vt To form or wind into a ball; as, to ball cotton.
IV. Ball ·vt To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
V. Ball ·noun A large pill, a form in which medicine is commonly given to horses; a bolus.
VI. Ball ·noun Any round or roundish body or mass; a sphere or globe; as, a ball of twine; a ball of snow.
VII. Ball ·noun A general name for games in which a ball is thrown, kicked, or knocked. ·see Baseball, and Football.
VIII. Ball ·noun A spherical body of any substance or size used to play with, as by throwing, knocking, kicking, ·etc.
IX. Ball ·noun A roundish protuberant portion of some part of the body; as, the ball of the thumb; the ball of the foot.
X. Ball ·vi To gather balls which cling to the feet, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls; as, the horse balls; the snow balls.
XI. Ball ·noun A leather-covered cushion, fastened to a handle called a ballstock;
— formerly used by printers for inking the form, but now superseded by the roller.
XII. Ball ·add. ·noun A pitched ball, not struck at by the batsman, which fails to pass over the home base at a height not greater than the batsman's shoulder nor less than his knee.
XIII. Ball ·noun A flaming, roundish body shot into the air; a case filled with combustibles intended to burst and give light or set fire, or to produce smoke or stench; as, a fire ball; a stink ball.
XIV. Ball ·noun Any solid spherical, cylindrical, or conical projectile of lead or iron, to be discharged from a firearm; as, a cannon ball; a rifle ball;
— often used collectively; as, powder and ball. Spherical balls for the smaller firearms are commonly called bullets.