curveball

noun curve·ball \ ˈkərv-ˌbȯl \

|Updated on: 13 Jul 2018

Definition of curveball

: a slow or moderately fast baseball pitch thrown with spin to make it swerve downward and usually to the left when thrown from the right hand or to the right when thrown from the left hand

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curveball

verb

See curveball defined for English-language learners

Examples of curveball in a Sentence

The batter struck out on a curveball.

Recent Examples of curveball from the Web

Anderson threw a flat curveball instead of challenging Kingham with a fastball.

— matt breen, Philly.com, "Phillies fall to Pirates, snap six-game winning streak," 8 July 2018
Both home runs came on two-strike counts as Castro homered off a 79.3 mph curveball.

— andre c. fernandez, miamiherald, "A historic game by Nationals journeyman Mark Reynolds leads to another Marlins debacle," 7 July 2018
Playing in his third big-league game, Orf lined a 2-2 curveball out to left field to become the 10th player in franchise history to smack a home run for his first big-league hit.

— tom haudricourt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Game changers: An overachiever's huge first hit and 'the best play I’ve ever made'," 4 July 2018
Messenger had a dusty curveball in his bag of tricks.

— New York Times, "A 50-Year-Old Japanese Baseball Record Unites Two American Pitchers," 3 July 2018
But no time to linger on that, because a major curveball was just thrown. Kurt Jackson and his pal Chico have burst into the women’s changing room to settle their score with Carmen.

— kathryn lindsay, refinery29.com, "R29 Binge Club: Glow Season 2, Episodes 1-10," 29 June 2018
Some put in an effort to confuse Duplex and throw it some curveballs, but this AI worked flawlessly within the very limited scope of a restaurant reservation.

— ron amadeo, Ars Technica, "Talking to Google Duplex: Google’s human-like phone AI feels revolutionary," 27 June 2018
More: Cincinnati Reds ride Sal Romano's arm, Joey Votto's bat to a 9-5 win over Detroit Tigers Votto pulled a 72-mph curveball into the seats in right to give the Reds a 4-0 lead.

— john fay, Cincinnati.com, "Joey Votto shoos away bird, hits grand slam," 20 June 2018
Petronis added a changeup to his repertoire after primarily going fastball-curveball in the past.

— david furones, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Palm Beach 9A-7A baseball player of the year: Jared Petronis, Santaluces junior," 20 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'curveball.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.