curveball
Speech parts
1. curveball - Noun
2. curveball - Verb
Meaning
(baseball) A forespin pitch thrown by rotating the index and middle fingers down and resulting in motion down "curve"
Synonyms: (slang) curve, (slang) deuce, (slang) yakker
He bit on a curveball in the dirt.
(by extension, chiefly US) An unexpected turn of events initiated by an opponent or chance; an exception or outlier.
Synonym: twist
Life has thrown him a few curveballs.
curveball (third-person singular simple present curveballs, present participle curveballing, simple past and past participle curveballed)
(baseball) To throw a curveball.
Synonyms
Examples
I was planning to be a baseball player until I ran into something called a curveball. And that set me back.
I'm always very excited by something that's a curveball or from left field.
It's a very big mental game, all day leading up to warm-ups. You're not sure if your curveball will break, or will you be able to throw it over the plate? It's all negative thoughts going into the game.
John Wetteland had a very good curveball. He threw it for a strike, too, in any count, any situation. But, he really didn't use it much. He didn't want to throw it. He wanted to throw fastball-slider.
Hideki Irabu had a very good curveball. Just a straight up and down, swing-and-miss curveball.
A lot of the times he would use his fastball, he used his curveball, a pitch with fantastic movement.