patball

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patball

(ˈpætˌbɔːl)

(Ball Games, other than specified) a game involving hitting a ball back and forth between two or more players but at a leisurely, and usually non-strenuous, pace

adj

(Ball Games, other than specified) of or resembling a game of patball

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive ?

Oh, yes, let people compare me to Joyce by all means, but my English is patball to Joyce's champion game" (TV-13 NY [1965]).

Nabokov's cold pudding: the stylistic and structural impact of Finnegans wake on Lolita, pale fire, and bend sinister

Lolita (1955) is perhaps the funniest novel in the language because it allows laughter its full complexity and range." Comparing himself to Joyce, Nabokov--who was not otherwise remarkable for his humility--acknowledged that "my English is patball to [his] championship game." Amis, here as elsewhere ambivalent toward Joyce, regards this concession as unnecessary.