Dictionary

curveball en · NOUN

Etymology

From curve + ball.

Meanings

1. A forespin pitch thrown by rotating the index and middle fingers down and resulting in motion down "curve"
   • Caglianone ripped Miles Mikolas’ curveball into the right-field corner for an RBI double that scored Salvador Perez in the fourth inning of the first game of a doubleheader against the Cardinals. 2025 June 6, Joe Harris, “Royals rookie Jac Caglianone gets first career hit and RBI”, in Associated Press, archived from the original on 07 Jun 2025:
   • Cam Smith bounced to shortstop on a 100 mph fastball, and Jacob Melton also grounded out on an 86.9 mph curveball. 2025 June 11, “White Sox pitching prospect Grant Taylor makes jump from Double-A to perfect major league debut”, in Associated Press, archived from the original on 12 Jun 2025:
   • He bit on a curveball in the dirt.
2. (US, broadly) An unexpected turn of events initiated by an opponent or chance; an exception or outlier.
   • But from time to time, June throws up a curveball, in the shape of unusual and hard to predict meteorological events. 2017 June 13, Stephen Moss, “June likes to throw a curveball now and again”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 27 Feb 2018:
   • The season’s first episode, “Bart Gets an F,” got the highest ratings in its history, but “Treehouse of Horror” was the real curveball: a genre-busting effort that proudly punched above the show’s expectations. 2015 March 10, David Sims, “Without Sam Simon, 'The Simpsons' Wouldn't Be What It Is Today”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 12 Jul 2015:
   • And I think that’s an example of where faced with a seemingly intractable political reality, technology produces a solution that is a total curveball and not that imaginable a few decades ago. 2021 June 11, Ezra Klein, “Sam Altman on the A.I. Revolution, Trillionaires and the Future of Political Power” (32:37 from the start), in The Ezra Klein Show (podcast), spoken by Sam Altman, archived from the original on 08 Jul 2022:
   • There are two curveball nominations, one perhaps a popularity bid and the other a credibility bid. The popular one is Bieber’s Purpose. 2016 December 6, Spencer Kornhaber, “The Culture Wars in the Grammy Album Nominations”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 16 Dec 2016:
   • Life has thrown him a few curveballs.

Forms

Coordinates

softball · slider · two-seam fastball · cut fastball · hardball · fastball · sinker · screwball · knuckleball · split-finger fastball

Deriveds

throw someone a curveball · curveballer

Relateds

throw someone a curve

Synonyms

twist · deuce · curve · yakker

Translations (12)

ko 커브볼 (pitch in baseball) · es ajuaishte (pitch in baseball) · pl zwrot (unexpected turn of events) · pl podkręcona piłka (pitch in baseball) · ca llançament de corba (pitch in baseball) · pt bola curva (pitch in baseball) · es algo no anticipado (unexpected turn of events) · de Curveball (pitch in baseball) · ja カーブボール (pitch in baseball) · es bola curva (pitch in baseball) · es algo inesperado (unexpected turn of events) · fr balle courbe (pitch in baseball)

curveball en · VERB

Etymology

From curve + ball.

Meanings

1. To throw a curveball.
   • The news curveballed him. He'd been hamstrung and schizzed all the preceding weeks. He brooded in his den. 2009, James Ellroy, Blood's a Rover, Random House, →ISBN, page 566:
   • Even though the haughty physics professors at the elite school ridiculed his declaration that he could make a baseball curve, Cummings just laughed it off and said, “I curveballed them to death,” according to Frederick Ivor-Campbell. 2006, William F. McNeil, The Evolution of Pitching in Major League Baseball, McFarland, →ISBN, page 21:

Forms

Relateds

yakker · bender · knee-buckler · breaking pitch