fastball

From fast (adjective) +‎ ball.

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fastball (plural fastballs) (baseball)

1. A high-speed pitch of a baseball.
   • 2025 June 11, “White Sox pitching prospect Grant Taylor makes jump from Double-A to perfect major league debut”, in Associated Press‎^[1], archived from the original on 12 June 2025:

     Cam Smith bounced to shortstop on a 100 mph fastball, and Jacob Melton also grounded out on an 86.9 mph curveball.

2. (specifically) A four-seam fastball, which is a backspin pitch thrown with a ball gripped in the direction to cause four of the seams of the ball to cross the flight path and released with roughly equal pressure by the index and middle fingers

   The pitcher had a blazing fastball.

• cheese (slang)
• fireball
• gas (slang)
• heat (slang)
• hummer (slang)

• fastball count
• fastballer
• split-fingered fastball

fastball (third-person singular simple present fastballs, present participle fastballing, simple past and past participle fastballed)

1. (transitive) To throw (something) at a high speed.
   • 2004, Richard Marinick, chapter 25, in Boyos: A Novel, Boston, Mass.: Kate’s Mystery Books, →ISBN, page 112:

     Kevin pushed away from the desk and fastballed it into the other man’s chest.

   • 2007 December 6, Jennifer Rardin, chapter 5, in Another One Bites the Dust (Jaz Parks; 2), New York, N.Y.: Orbit, →ISBN, page 44:

     Wyatt spurred his horse to the middle of the stones, reached into the corpse’s chest, yanked out the heart, and fastballed it at a vine-covered tree stump.

   • 2014, Kenneth Calhoun, chapter 15, in Black Moon: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Hogarth, →ISBN, page 240:

     He targeted a man standing a bit taller than the others and fastballed the lock in his direction. The lock somehow managed to miss everyone below and clattered against the pavement.

• fat balls