pinball

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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From pin +‎ ball.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pinball (countable and uncountable, plural pinballs)

  1. (games) A game, played on a device with a sloping base, in which the player operates a spring-loaded plunger to shoot a ball, between obstacles, and attempts to hit targets and score points.
  2. The ball used in pinball.
  3. (figuratively, soccer) A situation where a ball is frantically kicked between many players.
    • 2011 January 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 4 - 3 Wolves”, in BBC[1]:
      The opener came from a Jarvis ball which struck Aleksandar Kolarov en route to a lively round of pinball between City players before it was poked in by Milijas.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Portuguese: pinball
  • Spanish: pinball

Translations

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Verb

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pinball (third-person singular simple present pinballs, present participle pinballing, simple past and past participle pinballed)

  1. (intransitive) To dart about rapidly.
    • 1996, Peter Applebome, Dixie Rising: How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics and Culture:
      Like most immigrants, Gibbs came South for economic reasons and soon found himself pinballing around a world circumscribed by the hot growth markets...
    • 2004, David Baldacci, Hour Game:
      They went off the road and pinballed alongside a stretch of guardrail as the Bambis scattered.

Translations

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See also

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Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English pinball.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pinball m (plural pinballs)

  1. (games) pinball (an arcade game)

Spanish

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English pinball.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pinball m (plural pinballs)

  1. pinball

Usage notes

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According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.