Meanings
- USidiomaticnot comparableslangExtreme; extremely great.
He's making a balls-out run for Motor City by nightfall.
1976, CBer's Handy Atlas/Dictionary, page 9, column 21 more example
When you're popping babies via multiple partners, the “harem drama” is intense. As one strand of the pronatalist orthodoxy, [Elon] Musk's is very much a balls-out approach.
2025 April 26, Jo Ellison, “Make America Pregnant Again”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20
- not comparableDescriptive of the use of a centrifugal governor at maximum speed, corresponding to full throttle.
- USidiomaticnot comparableslangWith great abandon.
- USidiomaticnot comparableslangAt the fastest possible speed.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Usually said to be from the maximum-speed state of a ball governor, whose balls are swung out to the near-horizontal position. Neither balls-out nor balls to the wall is connected with the vulgar sense of balls (“testicles”) except connotationally via folk etymology. (In that vein of apparent vulgar innuendo, see also rock out with one's cock out.)
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
balls-out. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/balls-out
“balls-out.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/balls-out. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “balls-out,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/balls-out.
Source: balls-out on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.