handball

From hand +‎ ball.

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handball (countable and uncountable, plural handballs)

1. (uncountable) A team sport where two teams of seven players each (six players and a goalkeeper) pass and bounce a ball trying to throw it in the goal of the opposing team.
2. (countable) The medium-sized inflated ball used in this sport.
4. (countable, soccer) The offence of a player other than the goalkeeper touching the ball with the hand or arm on the field during play.
   • 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     It was a dramatic finish to an absorbing, fast-paced game but Blackburn will be deeply unhappy with referee Anthony Taylor as Nzonzi's handball was harsh.

5. (uncountable, US, Ireland) A sport in which players alternately strike the ball against a wall with their hand. Irish and American variants have slightly different rules.
6. (countable, US) The small rubber ball used in this sport.
7. (countable, Australian rules football) An act of passing a football by holding it with one hand and hitting it with the other.
8. (uncountable, Australia) A schoolyard game in which a tennis ball is struck with the hand, played on an improvised court on the asphalt or pavement.

• (team sport involving throwing a ball into a goal): European handball, Olympic handball, team handball
• (sport involving bouncing a ball off a wall): court handball

• (court handball): American handball, Gaelic handball, Irish handball

• → Portuguese: andebol, handebol (Brazil)

handball (third-person singular simple present handballs, present participle handballing, simple past and past participle handballed)

1. (transitive) To manually load or unload a container, trailer, or to otherwise manually move bulk goods (often on pallets) from one type of transport receptacle to another.
2. (soccer) To illegally touch the ball with the hand or arm.

   Synonym: handle

   If the defender handballs in the penalty area, a penalty is awarded.

3. (Australian rules football) To (legally) pass a football by holding it with one hand and hitting it with the other.
   • 2001, Jerry R. Thomas, Alan G. Launder, Jack K. Nelson, Play Practice: The Games Approach to Teaching and Coaching Sports, page 111:

     Meanwhile, you can introduce the basic concept of Aussie rules through a game like lineball, a lead-up game introduced in the basketball section of chapter 10, but with the ball handballed, not thrown.

   • 2005, Andrew McLeod, Trevor D. Jaques, Australian Football: Steps to Success, page 9:

     An obvious way in which football has changed over the last decade or two has been in the use of handballing.

   • 2009, John P. Devaney, Full Points Footy: Encyclopedia of Australian Football Clubs, page 246:

     On only 8 occasions during the entire match did players who had marked the ball decide not to walk slowly and purposefully back and take their kick, but instead play on by handballing to a team mate.

4. (Australia, slang) To pass responsibility for a task or problem to someone else, often to avoid dealing with an undesirable task or a tricky question.

   Synonym: offload

   • 2022 August 26, Jonathan Rivett, “My boss is handballing rather than delegating tasks. What should I do?”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎^[2]:

     Now six months into the role I have come to learn that the boss’s idea of empowering and delegating is actually handballing or passing off tasks that they actually should be performing themselves.

   • 2005 March 17, Bob Hogg, “Paradox of the Howard era”, in Australian Financial Review‎^[3]:

     The shortage has taken time to develop and despite the government trying to handball' the problem to the states, it has happened on its watch.

   • 2009 June 9, Matt Kimball, “Help with diagnosis and management of localised dorsal midfoot pain.”, in Podiatry Arena‎^[4]:

     I am finding that she's a difficult patient in more ways than one! for that reason I'll handball her off to our senior podiatrist if symptoms persist.

   • 2006 February 15, Senator Brandis, Economics Legislation Committee Estimates (Senate), page 12:

     I might handball that question to Dr Parkinson or somebody who has a better view of the morphology of the portfolio than I do.

5. (sexuality, slang) To insert a hand into someone's anus.

• Handball collections

Borrowed from German Handball (“handball”), from Hand (“hand”) +‎ Ball (“ball”), literally “hand ball”.

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /ɑ̃d.bal/

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handball m (plural handballs)

1. (sports) handball

   Synonym: (colloquial) hand

• handballeur
• handballeuse

• “handball”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From hand- +‎ ball.

handball m (definite singular handballen, indefinite plural handballer, definite plural handballene)

1. alternative form of håndball

• “handball” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From hand- +‎ ball.

handball m (definite singular handballen, indefinite plural handballar, definite plural handballane)

1. (uncountable) handball, a team sport.
2. (countable) a handball, the ball used in this sport.

• “handball” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• hándbol

Unadapted borrowing from English handball.

handball m (uncountable)

1. handball

   Synonym: balonmano

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.