Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A game played by two teams of 11 players each on a rectangular, 100-yard-long field with goal lines and goalposts at either end, the object being to gain possession of a ball and advance it in running or passing plays across the opponent's goal line or kick it through the air between the opponent's goalposts.
- noun The inflated oval ball used in this game.
- noun Rugby.
- noun Soccer.
- noun The ball used in Rugby or soccer.
- noun Informal A problem or issue that is discussed among groups or persons without being settled.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A ball consisting originally of an inflated bladder, now of a hollow globe of india-rubber or of heavy canvas saturated with rubber, cased in leather, round or oval in shape, and designed to be driven by the foot in the game called by the same name. See def. 2.
- noun A game played with such a ball by two parties of players on a level plot of ground, at each end of which is a goal through or beyond which the players strive to drive the ball.
- noun Figuratively, an object or a person subjected to hard usage or to many vicissitudes or changes of condition: as, he was the foot-ball of fortune.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An inflated ball to be kicked in sport, usually made in India rubber, or a bladder incased in Leather.
- noun The game played with a football{1}, by two opposing teams of players moving the ball between goals at opposite ends of a rectangular playing field. Outside the United States
football refers to soccer, and in England, also to rugby, but in the United States the shape of the ball and the rules of the game are different. - noun Brit. Soccer or rugby.
- noun Something which is treated in a rough manner, usually as part of a dispute.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun chiefly UK, uncountable
association football : agame in which twoteams each contend to get around ball into the other team'sgoal primarily bykicking the ball. Known assoccer in the US - noun US, uncountable
American football : agame in which two teams attempt to get anovoid ball to the end of each other's territory. - noun Canada, uncountable
Canadian football : agame played on a wide field in which two teams attempt to get anovoid ball to the end of each other's territory. - noun Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory, uncountable
Australian rules football . - noun Ireland, uncountable
Gaelic football : a field game played with similar rules tohurling , but using hands and feet rather than a stick, and a ball, similar to, yet smaller than a soccer ball. - noun Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, uncountable
rugby league . - noun Australia, Ireland, New Zealand
rugby union - noun countable The ball used in any game called "football".
- noun uncountable Practise of these particular games, or techniques used in them.
- noun figuratively, countable An item of discussion, particularly in a back-and-forth manner
- noun slang, countable The nickname of the leather briefcase containing classified nuclear war plans, which is always near the US President.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of various games played with a ball (round or oval) in which two teams try to kick or carry or propel the ball into each other's goal
- noun the inflated oblong ball used in playing American football
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Maybe it's time to lay the term "football widow" to rest.
Forbes.com: News Tom Van Riper 2011
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Maybe it's time to lay the term "football widow" to rest.
unknown title 2011
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Winning in football is about having talent at every position, or at least enough of it sprinkled throughout your team that you can make plays on offense and defense.
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As for me, the best bet in football is betting the point spread or over/under totals on individual games.
Chris Maloney: Don't Be A Square: 10 Tips For Betting On Football Chris Maloney 2010
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If you make Y variable then you are like the sports guys on television who say that the most important thing in football is momentum and that the last team to score has momentum. joe from Lowell Says:
Matthew Yglesias » CFR’s Benn Steil Doesn’t Know the Velocity of Money is a Variable 2009
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As for me, the best bet in football is betting the point spread or over/under totals on individual games.
Chris Maloney: Don't Be A Square: 10 Tips For Betting On Football Chris Maloney 2010
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As for me, the best bet in football is betting the point spread or over/under totals on individual games.
Chris Maloney: Don't Be A Square: 10 Tips For Betting On Football Chris Maloney 2010
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As for me, the best bet in football is betting the point spread or over/under totals on individual games.
Chris Maloney: Don't Be A Square: 10 Tips For Betting On Football Chris Maloney 2010
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The problem with such a philosophy in football is that when you are spending so much on individual players, those individual players are still at the mercy of their teammates.
Now or never for Vikes Doug Farrar 2010
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If you didn't stick in the word "football" in front of "club" people might be misled.
Paul Lambert needs lessons in the lexicon of the football club | Harry Pearson 2011
Prolagus commented on the word football
I don't want to play football
I don't understand the thrill of the game
I don't want to play football
I don't understand the thrill of the running, catching, throwing
Taking orders from a moron
Grabbing for the sweaty crotches
Getting hit by people I don't know
Sugar, I'd rather play a different sort of game
Sugar, the girls are just as good as boys at playing.
(I don't want to play football, by Belle and Sebastian)
August 6, 2008
darqueau commented on the word football
When will you realize it doesn't pay
to be smarter than teachers, smarter than most boys
so shut your mouth, start kicking the football
bang on the teeth, you are off for a week, boy
Lord Anthony
August 14, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word football
McSweeney's list.
January 10, 2009
supbob91 commented on the word football
located in Merriam Webtster's Notebook Dictionary pg 31
September 25, 2010
bilby commented on the word football
"Football features two of the worst aspects of American life, violence and committee meetings."
- George Will
October 18, 2010
marky commented on the word football
great quote.. funny.
October 18, 2010
EmmaSmith commented on the word football
My younger brother loves football but I hate it!!!
January 25, 2011