ball
part of speech
noun (ball, balls)
meaning for a pupil
1) A ball is a round thing used in games, for throwing, kicking, hitting or bouncing. tree →
2) A ball is anything round, like a ball of wool or a snowball. tree →
3) A ball is a big formal dance party. tree →
4) The ball of the foot is the round part under the toes. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: Here it is a ball that is thrown hard and far, as a picture of someone being flung away. Interpretation: Isaiah warns the proud official Shebna that God will hurl him out of his office into a far land. Tradition reads this as a warning that pride in rank can be taken away. In the primary lessons: a thing counted; balls in boxes, bags or teams; in geometry a sphere; phrases «play ball», «on the ball» (quick to notice), «have a ball» (have great fun), «snowball», «ball game»
examples
- He will violently roll and toss thee like a ball into a large country; there shalt thou die, and there shall be the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of the lord's house. (Prophets ISA.22.18, JPS 1917) tree →
- He has 12 tennis balls. tree →
- Each can holds 3 balls. tree →
- She lost 4 balls. tree →
- The coach bought 6 balls for 5 dollars each. tree →
- Kick the ball to me! tree →
- She rolled the clay into a ball. tree →
- Cinderella went to the ball. tree →
- We had a ball at the party. tree →
- A ball is shaped like a sphere. tree →
- Don't chase a ball onto the road. tree →
note
Just a thing counted. Trap: «a can of 3 balls» means 3 balls per can. «Ball» (dance) and «bawl» (cry loudly) sound the same. Safety: never run onto a road after a ball.
In the corpora
- Big cats play with balls, ropes and barrels, especially young ones, because play trains the moves they need for hunting.
- Pufferfish swallow water fast to blow up into a prickly ball, and many also have strong poison.
- Many zoos have stopped tricks like ball balancing and show natural behaviour instead.
- Think of an owl pellet on a classroom table: a ball of fur and tiny bones the owl coughed up, not poo.
- Running makes a dog want to chase, just as a ball rolling away does.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «ball» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.