patball

alternative pat-ball

1. uncountableA particular children's ball game played against a wall with a tennis ball.
2. figurativelyuncountableA back-and-forth situation.

   Opposite him sat Peter Thorneycroft and the patball went on and on and on. It's as though one hadn't left off last July - the same sort of professional debating, two heavyweights in a clinch because neither wants to knock the other out […]

   1981, Richard Howard Stafford Crossman, The Backbench Diaries of Richard Crossman, Holmes & Meier Pub

3. countableThe ball used in the game of patball.
4. figurativelyuncountableA pawn, a football.

   Don't you know that your very best friend is being made somebody's patball?

   2003, Lindsey Davis, The Accusers, Century, →ISBN