ball gamen.
/ˈbɔːl ɡeɪm/, U.S. /ˈbɔl ˌɡeɪm/, /ˈbɑl ˌɡeɪm/ 1. A game played with a ball; esp. (U.S.) a game of baseball.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > [noun] > game
ball game1791
1791 J. Trapp tr. J. W. von Archenholz Picture of Italy I. i. 16 Among those may be reckoned a certain balloon or ball game.
1848 Knickerbocker 18 216 The boys suspend their ball game while he drives over the green.
1878 Scribner's Monthly Nov. 85/1 They had a ball-game just like our old round-ball,—not the highfalutin base-ball they play in this country.
1888 N.Y. Life 11 Aug. 18 You know it is the Sabbath day and you have been to the ball game.
1898 S. Hale Lett. (1919) 335 These men were just like..Harvard men, after the ball game has gone right for us.
1918 W. Faulkner Let. 2 June in J. G. Watson Thinking of Home (1992) 61 Phil and I went to the Yale-Harvard ball game. Yale won, though I dont know the score, not being especially keen on ball games.
1969 V. Bartlett Past of Pastimes v. 62 Daggles, hark the robbers coming through, and broken bottles are ball games for girls.
1989 N.Y. Woman Sept. 80/3 It makes me feel that there's no hope, that all of life really is just a cranky, deeply couched week-end watching ball games on the TV.
2003 Biogr. Mem. Fellows Royal Hist. Soc. 49 201 He was not good at ball games but was active in cross-country running.
2. figurative. Originally and chiefly U.S. A state of affairs, a continuing activity; a contest. Frequently in a new (different, etc.) ball game: a situation in which new factors come into play.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > circumstance or circumstances > [noun] > state of affairs or situation > in which new factors come into play
ball game1931
1931 M. Bodenheim Naked on Roller Skates 127 Ain' no double plays coming off in this ballgame, chicken.
1955 Fortune Aug. 78 (title) Retailing: it's a new ball game.
1961 Wall St. Jrnl. 24 July 1 And, perhaps most serious of all in the long run, ‘a whole new ball game in Algeria,’ as one observer here puts it, referring to the disturbing effect the new trouble is likely to have on peace talks now going on.
1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 9/4 ‘Then it will look like a different ball game,’ he said. ‘We might see these recent attacks as a kind of last gasp.’
1970 TV Guide (U.S.) 3 Jan. A-1 At the half time it's NBC ahead in the network ratings ball game on every count—NBC says.
2007 Archit. Rec. (Nexis) 1 Apr. 46 It's a whole new ball game: museums that function as cultural centers for the community.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1791