line drive

noun

: a batted baseball hit in a nearly straight line usually not far above the ground

Examples of line drive in a Sentence

He hit a hard line drive to the shortstop.

Recent Examples on the Web

Padres catcher Luis Campusano countered with a line drive off the glove of Royals second baseman Michael Massey. — Kansas City Star, 18 July 2026

By the eighth inning, when the conditions had deteriorated at Citizens Bank Park, Brandon Marsh twisted and turned to track a line drive slicing through the smoke. — Matt Gelb, New York Times, 16 July 2026

Switzerland's Djibril Sow took a hard shot in the 19th minute that was hit like a line drive — right into the waiting arms of Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. — Andrew Greif, NBC news, 12 July 2026

Vilade’s line drive off Gabe Speier broke open a 2-1 game with two out in the seventh, scoring Aranda and Junior Caminero. — ABC News, 11 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1903, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for line drive

• overdrive
• alive
• archive
• arrive
• beehive
• connive
• contrive
• deprive
• derive
• khedive
• revive
• survive

Kids Definition

line drive

noun

: a batted baseball hit not far above the ground in a nearly straight line