Dictionary

patball en · NOUN

Etymology

From pat + ball.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) A particular children's ball game played against a wall with a tennis ball.
2. (figuratively, uncountable) A back-and-forth situation.
   • Opposite him sat Peter Thorneycroft and the patball went on and on and on. It's as though one hadn't left off last July - the same sort of professional debating, two heavyweights in a clinch because neither wants to knock the other out […] 1981, Richard Howard Stafford Crossman, The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman, Holmes & Meier Pub:
3. (countable) The ball used in the game of patball.
4. (figuratively, uncountable) A pawn, a football.
   • Don't you know that your very best friend is being made somebody's patball? 2003, Lindsey Davis, The Accusers, Century, →ISBN:

Forms

Deriveds

patballer