knuckleball

Plural: knuckleballs

Noun

• a baseball pitch thrown with little speed or spin
• A pitch thrown with the ball gripped on the fingertips and released with no rotation, which travels over an unpredictable path to the plate due to micro-turbulence in the air.
• A type of delivery where a fast bowler holds the ball on the knuckles of the index and middle fingers.
• An event that is hard to predict.

Verb

• To pitch knuckleballs.

Examples

• Our vendor keeps throwing us knuckleballs.

Synonyms

knuckler, bug, butterfly ball, dancer, floater, flutterball, ghostball

Related Words

curveball, cut fastball, fastball, screwball, sinker, slider, split finger fastball, two-seam fastball