ballgame

☆ ballgame [bôl′gām΄ ]

n.

1. a game played with a ball; specif., a baseball game

2. any contest

3. Informal a set of circumstances [a different ballgame]

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whole new ballgame or new ballgame 〚? from use in baseball, as when a score has become tied〛 Informal

a situation changed so drastically as to need new approaches or solutions

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the whole ballgame or the ballgame Informal

the main or decisive factor, event, etc.

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ball game also ball·game (bôlʹgām') n.

1. A game, especially baseball, that is played with a ball.

2. Slang.

a. A competition: “But in the winner-take-all world of politics, the contest for the undecided 2 or 3 percent can be the whole ballgame” (Brad Edmondson).

b. A particular condition, situation, or set of circumstances.

3. Anthropology. A game with religious and political significance in Mayan and various other pre-Columbian societies of Mesoamerica, southwestern North America, and the Caribbean, played with a rubber ball in a walled court.

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