Ball
King James Dictionary [1]
BALL, n.L. pila A ball may signify a mass from collecting, or it may be that which is driven, from the root of L. pello probably the former.
1. A round body a spherical substance, whether natural or artificial or a body nearly round as, a ball for play a ball of thread a ball of snow. 2. A bullet a ball of iron or lead for cannon, muskets, &c. 3. A printer's ball, consisting of hair or wool, covered with leather or skin, and fastened to a stock, called a ball-stock, and used to put ink on the types in the forms. 4. The globe or earth, from its figure. 5. A globe borne as an ensign of authority as, to hold the ball of a kingdom. 6. Any part of the body that is round or protuberant as, the eye ball the ball of the thumb or foot. 7. The weight at the bottom of a pendulum. 8. Among the Cornish miners in England, a tin mine. 9. In pyrotechnics, a composition of combustible ingredients, which serve to burn, smoke or give light.
Ball-stock, among printers, a stock somewhat hollow at one end, to which balls of skin, stuffed with wool, are fastened, and which serves as a handle.
Ball-vein, among miners, a sort of iron ore, found in loose masses, of a circular form, containing sparkling particles.
Ball and socket, an instrument used in surveying and astronomy, made of brass, with a perpetual screw, to move horizontally, obliquely, or vertically.
Puff-ball, in botany, the Lycoperdon, a genus of fungeses.
Fire-ball, a meteor a luminous globe darting through the atmosphere also, a bag of canvas filled with gunpowder, sulphur, pitch, saltpeter, &c.,to be thrown by the hand, or from mortars, to set fire to houses.
BALL, n.Gr.to toss or throw to leap. An entertainment of dancing originally and peculiarly, at the invitation and expense of an individual but the word is used in America, for a dance at the expense of the attendants.
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BALL, To form into a ball, as snow on horses' hoofs, or on the feet. We say the horse balls, or the snow balls.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): (n.) A pitched ball, not struck at by the batsman, which fails to pass over the home base at a height not greater than the batsman's shoulder nor less than his knee.
(2): (n.) Any solid spherical, cylindrical, or conical projectile of lead or iron, to be discharged from a firearm; as, a cannon ball; a rifle ball; - often used collectively; as, powder and ball. Spherical balls for the smaller firearms are commonly called bullets.
(3): (n.) A social assembly for the purpose of dancing.
(4): (n.) The globe or earth.
(5): (n.) Any round or roundish body or mass; a sphere or globe; as, a ball of twine; a ball of snow.
(6): (n.) A spherical body of any substance or size used to play with, as by throwing, knocking, kicking, etc.
(7): (n.) A general name for games in which a ball is thrown, kicked, or knocked. See Baseball, and Football.
(8): (n.) A large pill, a form in which medicine is commonly given to horses; a bolus.
(9): (n.) A flaming, roundish body shot into the air; a case filled with combustibles intended to burst and give light or set fire, or to produce smoke or stench; as, a fire ball; a stink ball.
(10): (n.) A leather-covered cushion, fastened to a handle called a ballstock; - formerly used by printers for inking the form, but now superseded by the roller.
(11): (n.) A roundish protuberant portion of some part of the body; as, the ball of the thumb; the ball of the foot.
(12): (v. t.) To heat in a furnace and form into balls for rolling.
(13): (v. t.) To form or wind into a ball; as, to ball cotton.
(14): (v. i.) To gather balls which cling to the feet, as of damp snow or clay; to gather into balls; as, the horse balls; the snow balls.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
( דּוּר , Dur ) , well known as being used in various sports and games from the earliest times, several kinds of which are depicted on the Egyptian monuments (Wilkinson, 1:198 sq. abridg.). The word occurs in this sense in Isaiah 22:18, but in a subsequent chapter (29:3) it is employed of a ring or circle, and translated "round about" in the prophecy of the siege of Jerusalem. In Ezekiel 24:5, in the symbol of the same event, it is translated "burn," but probably means Heap, as in the margin.
Among the Egyptians the balls were made of leather or skin, sewed with string, crosswise, in the same manner as our own, and stuffed with bran or husks of corn; and those which have been found at Thebes are about three inches in diameter. Others were made of string, or of the stalks of rushes platted together so as to form a circular mass, and covered, like the former, with leather. They appear also to have a smaller kind of ball, probably of the same materials, and covered, like many of our own, with slips of leather of an elliptical shape, sewed together longitudinally, and meeting in a common point at both ends, each alternate slip being of a different color; but these have only been met with in pottery (Wilkinson, 1:200).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
bôl ( דּוּר , dūr ): A rare Hebrew word used in this sense only in Isaiah 22:18 , and correctly rendered in the American Standard Revised Version "He will surely wind thee round and round, and toss thee like a ball into a large country." De Or, Böttcher, Jastrow, following Talmud, regard the noun as kaddūr , but perhaps incorrectly. See also Games .
