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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

balls-out en · ADJ

Pronunciation

Etymology

Usually said to be from the maximum-speed state of a ball governor, whose balls are swung out to the near-horizontal position. Neither balls-out nor balls to the wall is connected with the vulgar sense of balls (“testicles”) except connotationally via folk etymology. (In that vein of apparent vulgar innuendo, see also rock out with one's cock out.)

Meanings

  1. (US, idiomatic, not-comparable, slang) Extreme; extremely great.
    • He's making a balls-out run for Motor City by nightfall. 1976, CBer's Handy Atlas/Dictionary, page 9, column 2:
    • When you're popping babies via multiple partners, the “harem drama” is intense. As one strand of the pronatalist orthodoxy, [Elon] Musk's is very much a balls-out approach. 2025 April 26, Jo Ellison, “Make America Pregnant Again”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20:

balls-out en · ADV

Pronunciation

Etymology

Usually said to be from the maximum-speed state of a ball governor, whose balls are swung out to the near-horizontal position. Neither balls-out nor balls to the wall is connected with the vulgar sense of balls (“testicles”) except connotationally via folk etymology. (In that vein of apparent vulgar innuendo, see also rock out with one's cock out.)

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Descriptive of the use of a centrifugal governor at maximum speed, corresponding to full throttle.
  2. (US, idiomatic, not-comparable, slang) With great abandon.
  3. (US, idiomatic, not-comparable, slang) At the fastest possible speed.

Relateds

balls to the wall · a synonymous term whose proposed etymologic connection to this one has been challenged