Meanings
- derogatoryuncountableball gamesA style of play characterised by many long balls and few short passes.
'We're Leeds United, we're passing the ball,' sang delighted supporters, exhilarated at being rid of Warnock's despised hoofball.
2019 October 10, Dave Tomlinson, Leeds, Money, and Misery Me: Twenty Years of Hurt, 23 Mistakes and the Tale of Toma ..., AuthorHouse, →ISBN2 more examples
Wimbledon continued to hold their own under Joe Kinnear. They played with passion and no little skill. It certainly wasn't just 'hoofball' as their detractors, such as Gary Lineker, claimed.
2012 July 2, Tim Quelch, Underdog!, eBook Partnership, →ISBNBy the 1980s Italian football was also showing distinct signs of virility as it built up to its great moment in the sun with the 1990 World Cup. It had glamour and skill, just as British football was deep into its cul-de-sac of hoofball tactics and off-pitch thuggery.
2015 January 9, Nicholas Walton, Genoa, 'La Superba': The Rise and Fall of a Merchant Pirate Superpower, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
Origin
From hoof (“to kick, especially a long way downfield with little accuracy”) + -ball.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with hoofball
All rhymes →Cite this entry
hoofball. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoofball
“hoofball.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoofball. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hoofball,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoofball.
Source: hoofball on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.