▪ I. football
(ˈfʊtbɔːl)
Also formerly foot-ball.
[f. foot n. + ball n.]
1. An inflated ball used in the game (see 2). It is now either spherical or (as in the Rugby game) elliptical, and consists of an inflated bag or bladder enclosed in a leather case.
| 1486 Bk. St. Albans, Her. E vj a, It is calde in latyn pila pedalis a fotebal. 1508 Barclay Egloges v, The sturdie plowmen..driuing the foote ball. 1650 Baxter Saints' R. iv. (1653) 282 Like a Football in the midst of a crowd of Boys. 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. vii. (1737) 26 The Bladder, wherewith they make Footballs. 1795–1814 Wordsw. Excursion vii. 743 If touched by him, The inglorious foot⁓ball mounted to the pitch Of the Lark's flight. |
2. a. An open-air game played with this ball by two sides, each of which endeavours to kick or convey the ball to the goal at the opposite end of the field.
There are various styles of playing the game, but the most widely recognized are the Association and the Rugby Union and League games, and American football (see sense b below).
| 1424 Sc. Act Jas. I, c. 18 The king forbiddes þ{supt} na man play at þe fut ball vnder þe payne of iiijd. 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xxvii, Foote balle, wherin is nothinge but beastly furie and exstreme violence. 1663 Flagellum or O. Cromwell (ed. 2) 8 Players at Foot-ball, Cudgels, or any other boysterous sport or game. 1791 W. Bartram Carolina 509 The foot-ball is likewise a favorite, manly diversion with them [the Indians]. 1880 Times 12 Nov. 4/4 Not 15 years back, few men played football after they left school. |
b. spec. = American football s.v. American a. 3.
The term
soccer is used in North America to distinguish what is in Britain called (
Association)
football or
soccer from
American football.
| 1881 N.Y. Herald 20 Nov. 8/5 A splendid game of football was played yesterday at the Polo Grounds between..Harvard and Princeton. 1925 F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby i. 7 Her husband..had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven. 1954 W. Stevens Coll. Poems 270 The negroes were playing football in the park. 1976 Webster's Sports Dict. 162/2 Even though the game is named football, kicking plays a relatively minor role other than in attempting a field goal or point after touchdown. |
3. fig. (
esp. a person or thing that is kicked or tossed about like a football).
| 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 416/1 For so he maye translate the worlde in to a footeball yf he ioyne therewith certayn circumstaunces, and saye this rounde rollyng foote⁓ball that men walke vpon [etc.]. ? c 1600 Distr. Emperor ii. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 186, I am the verye foote-ball of the starres. 1711 Let. to Sacheverel 14 England must always have a National Football, and you, at present, are That. 1879 Froude Cæsar xv. 231 The..institutions of the mistress of the world had become the football of ruffians. |
4. attrib. and
Comb., as
football-club,
football-day,
football-field,
football-ground,
football-match,
football-pitch,
football-play,
football-player,
football-playing,
† football-sport,
† football-swain,
football-union,
football-war;
football coupon, a coupon used in an entry for a football pool;
football hooligan, one who engages in violent behaviour, vandalism, etc., while attending (or travelling to or from) a football match; hence
football hooliganism;
football pool, an organized system of betting on the results of football matches; also, loosely,
= football coupon.
| 1918 Methodist Times 5 Dec. 9/1 The amendment of the Gambling Laws, particularly in relation to *football coupons, [etc.]..is long overdue. 1940 S. O'Casey Star turns Red i. 5 The concentration necessary to choose the right teams for entry in his football coupons. |
| 1815 in Hone Every-Day Bk. I. 245 The coachman exclaimed..‘It's *Foot-ball day’. 1887 Shearman Athletics & Football 247 Shrove Tuesday..was..the great ‘football day’ in England for centuries. |
| 1867 Routledge's Handbk. Football 59, I know of no prettier sight than a *Football field on a bright March afternoon. 1986 Financial Times 25 June 17/5 Post-World Cup Brazil is trying to get used to the idea of defeat on the football field. |
| 1852 Foot Ball Controversy (New Haven) 2 We appoint the usual *football ground..as the..place. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 12 July 10/1 Would it [sc. St. Paul's] not make a good football ground on a wet day if all the chairs were moved from under the dome? 1985 Guardian 2 Feb. 6/3 The concentration of debris into an area scarcely larger than a football ground showed that the missile had crashed. |
| 1967 Observer 3 Dec. 7/2 The problem, Dr Harrington believes, is to find out what is the typical *football hooligan. 1984 Financial Times 4 June i. 13 Mr. Abbot is never actually as funny as he is on the box as..that carrot-headed Scottish football hooligan. |
| 1969 New Society 27 Nov. 859/2 The Home Secretary's latest measures to deal with *football hooliganism received little publicity. 1986 Guardian Weekly 11 May 2/4 How can the House express its indignant rejection of football hooliganism while setting such a persuasive example of undignified and daily indiscipline? |
| 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 161 ¶3, I was diverted from a farther Observation of these combatants, by a *Foot-ball Match. |
| [1946 Brentwoodian Dec. 25 Football has been made compulsory on Thursdays and except when detention intervenes all six pitches are in use.] |
| 1961 F. C. Avis Sportsman's Gloss. 12 (caption) Association *Football pitch plan. 1986 Financial Times 26 Aug. 7/4 The development will have a dealing floor the size of Wembley football pitch. |
| 1589 Cogan Haven Health i (1612) 2 Some are vehement, as dauncing, leaping, *foote ball play. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. v. vi, Some, with many a merry shout..Pursued the foot-ball play. |
| 1605 Shakes. Lear i. iv. 95 Ste. Ile not be strucken, my Lord. Kent. Nor tript neither, you base *Foot-ball plaier. |
| 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 137 Some spend the Sabaoth day..in..*foot-ball playing, and such other deuilish pastimes. |
| 1929 Times Index Jan.–Mar. 59/2 *Football ‘pool’. 1936 Economist 7 Mar. 517/2 We may..put.. the total ‘rake off’ of football pool promoters..at not less than 30 per cent. of the amounts staked. 1957 M. Spark Comforters i. 6 Louisa Jepp sat at the table writing out her football pools. 1959 Chambers Encycl. VI. 159/2 In 1954 football pools were estimated to be worth about {pstlg}10 million to the post office. 1971 R. Roberts Classic Slum x. 183 Football pools ‘nationalised’ a local form of gambling. Before their introduction bookmakers supplied men in factory and workshop with fixed odds football coupons weekly. |
| 1589 Greene Menaphon Wks. (Grosart) VI. 137 At *foote ball sport, thou shalt my champion be. |
| 1653 Walton Angler i. 35 Where, for some sturdy *foot-ball Swain, Jone strokes a Sillibub or twaine. |
| 1714 Gay Trivia ii. 226 Lo! from far, I spy the Furies of the *Foot-ball War. |
▪ II. football, v. (
ˈfʊtbɔːl)
[f. prec. n.] trans. To kick like a football; to kick about with the feet; also
fig. Hence
ˈfootballing ppl. a.| 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe Wks. (Grosart) V. 268 They footebald their heades togither. 1627–47 Feltham Resolves II. lxxxiii. 427 To see how well meaning simplicity is foot⁓ball'd. 1860 All Year Round No. 42. 363, I knew he longed..to football my unshorn head up and down the knubbly street. 1885 G. Meredith Diana I. v. 129 She became the Mrs. Warwick of our footballing world. |