screw·ball
ˈskrü-ˌbȯl 
plural screwballs
1
: a baseball pitch that spins and breaks in the opposite direction to a curve
The students learned that most pitches—such as fastballs, curveballs, sliders and screwballs—spin because pitchers wrap their fingers around the ball and, in releasing it, whip them across its surface.—
Scientific American
Scientific AmericanBack in '34, he had made five future Hall of Famers whiff, one by one, and he had done it just as Fernando had, with a screwball—a pitch that breaks in toward a batter, opposite of a curveball.—Tom Friend
Tom Friend2
informal
: a whimsical or eccentric person
The local TV stations virtually ignored him, and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution portrayed him as a screwball with a harebrained scheme.—William Oscar Johnson
William Oscar Johnson
informal
: extremely eccentric or whimsical : zany
a screwball comedy
his screwball charm
By some ditsy, screwball logic, the Cubs decided that Dean had shown enough of his old flair to warrant another season, and so they went ahead and asked him back.—Paul Auster
Paul AusterExamples of screwball in a Sentence
Noun
She really did that? What a screwball.
a screwball who liked to save lint and bits of string
Adjective
she's always off on some screwball plan
Recent Examples on the Web
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 7 May 2025
There actually is something at stake for these women, which frees them up for a desperate kind of humor, in the vein of those plucky social climbers in a screwball comedy from an earlier era.
—Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 1 May 2025
Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025
Where to watch: Disney+ 'Fly Me to the Moon'
There's screwball rom-com nostalgia at play in this throwback tale starring Scarlett Johansson as a marketing executive hired by NASA to sell the public on the 1969 mission to the moon.
—Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 24 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for screwball
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Noun
Many enduring genres crystallized in the mid-thirties—the screwball comedy, the grand-scale action adventure, big-boned literary adaptations, the modern musical (a template exemplified by the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers)—and all were illuminated and endorsed by Sennwald.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 7 May 2025
There actually is something at stake for these women, which frees them up for a desperate kind of humor, in the vein of those plucky social climbers in a screwball comedy from an earlier era.
—Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 1 May 2025
Adjective
The ensuing ten-minute battle of wits had a screwball energy that Preston Sturges would have appreciated.
—Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025
Where to watch: Disney+ 'Fly Me to the Moon'
There's screwball rom-com nostalgia at play in this throwback tale starring Scarlett Johansson as a marketing executive hired by NASA to sell the public on the 1969 mission to the moon.
—Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 24 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for screwball
Cite this Entry
“Screwball.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/screwball. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
screwball
1 of 2 noun
screw·ball
ˈskrü-ˌbȯl
1
: a baseball pitch that moves away from a straight path in a direction opposite to a curve
2
informal
: a foolish or odd person
screwball
2 of 2 adjectiveLove words? Need even more definitions?
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