kerby

K5E1R1B3Y4
US/kɝbi/UK/kɜːbi/

noun

A children's ball game played in the street, the aim being to throw the ball against the opposite kerb and catch it on the rebound.

UncommonScrabble 14

Meanings

kerby1

nounkerby (uncountable)

alternative kerbsy

  1. UKuncountableA children's ball game played in the street, the aim being to throw the ball against the opposite kerb and catch it on the rebound.

    It's dusk and there are a lot of kids out playing kerby and tag and football. For a December night, the weather isn't bad.

    2011, Adrian McKinty, Dead I Well May Be, page 133
    2 more examples

    I'd play kerby in the street for hours looking up at contrails stretching across grey slate skies, wishing I was on a plane too, jetting away to somewhere else.

    2014, Simon Danczuk, Matt Baker, Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith

    The heat from the tarmac refracted the light and disturbed the vision of the children as they persisted in their game of kerby.

    2014, Samantha Nash, All Muck and Mullets, page 43

Kerby2

Origin

Kerby · proper noun

Variant of Kirby.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with kerby

All rhymes →

Sounds the same

Cite this entry
APA

kerby. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kerby

MLA

“kerby.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kerby. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kerby,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kerby.

Source: kerby on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.