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knuckleball
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As a noun, knuckleball means a pitch thrown with the ball gripped on the fingertips and released with no rotation, which travels over an unpredictable path to the plate due to micro-turbulence in the air. As a verb, it means pitch knuckleballs.
Meanings of knuckleball
4 meaningsnoun
baseballA pitch thrown with the ball gripped on the fingertips and released with no rotation, which travels over an unpredictable path to the plate due to micro-turbulence in the air.
“Even the pitcher doesn't know where his knuckleball is going.”
“Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield is best known for his use of the knuckleball.”
figurativeAn event that is hard to predict.
“Our vendor keeps throwing us knuckleballs.”
A baseball pitch thrown with little speed or spin
Similar: knuckler
verb
baseballTo pitch knuckleballs.
Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).