pickleball

English

Pickleball equipment.

Alternative forms

• pickle ball
• pickle-ball

Etymology

From (pickle boat - boat) + ball. Coined by the sport inventor's wife who was reminded " […] of the pickle boat in rowing where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats." Similarly, the game initially used leftover equipment from badminton, table tennis, and wiffleball.

Noun

pickleball (countable and uncountable, plural pickleballs)

1. (uncountable) A racquet sport resembling tennis, played with solid paddles and a perforated ball, which combines elements of badminton, table tennis and wiffleball.
   • 2022 February 19, Shannon Mullen, “America's fastest growing sport is a cross between tennis, ping pong, and badminton”, in National‎^[2], NPR, retrieved 2022-02-19:

     For the rapidly decreasing number of Americans who've never heard of pickleball, the obscure paddleball game is America's fastest growing sport for the second year in a row.

2. (countable) The ball used in the sport of pickleball.

Derived terms

• pickleballer
• pukaball