white ball

noun

limited overs cricket, as distinct from first-class cricket

“His team was scheduled to play a white ball match against England.”

Opposite

Meanings

white ball1

nounwhite ball (uncountable)

alternative white-ball

  1. metonymicallyuncountableball gameslimited overs cricket, as distinct from first-class cricket

    His team was scheduled to play a white ball match against England.

    2 more examples

    Kohli says that his white-ball batting is essentially an extension of his Test batting.

    2017 January 28, Jonathan Liew, “To cling together or drift apart? Red and white-ball cricket facing a divided future”, in The Daily Telegraph, London

    Adil Rashid has put his ambitions for a Test return on hold and negotiated a new white-ball deal at Yorkshire after losing some of his appetite for the first-class game. ... “I’ve made the decision to just concentrate on white ball, something which makes me very happy and gives me the best chance of improving my cricket,” said Rashid.

    2018 February 15, Ali Martin, Vithushan Ehantharajah, “Adil Rashid opts out of first-class cricket for 2018 season”, in The Guardian, London
  2. uncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see white, ball.

White Ball2

proper noun

alternative Whiteball

  1. A hamlet in Sampford Arundel parish, Somerset, England, previously in Somerset West and Taunton district (OS grid ref ST0918).

Synonyms & antonyms

Opposite

Origin

Presumably named after White Ball Hill. Whiteball Tunnel, under the boundary with Devon, would have been named after the hill.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

white ball. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white%20ball

MLA

“white ball.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white%20ball. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “white ball,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/white%20ball.

Source: white ball on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.