drop the ball
Meanings
verb
- To fail in one's responsibilities or duties, or to make a mistake, especially at a critical point or when the result is very negative.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see drop, ball.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
An allusion to the rules of such games as baseball, American football or cricket wherein literally dropping the ball would be a mistake.
Synonyms
Related words
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.