screwball

1 of 2

noun

screw·​ball ˈskrü-ˌbȯl How to pronounce screwball (audio)
plural screwballs
1
: a baseball pitch that spins and breaks in the opposite direction to a curve
The students learned that most pitches—such as fastballs, curveballs, sliders and screwballs—spin because pitchers wrap their fingers around the ball and, in releasing it, whip them across its surface.Scientific American
Back in '34, he had made five future Hall of Famers whiff, one by one, and he had done it just as Fernando had, with a screwball—a pitch that breaks in toward a batter, opposite of a curveball.Tom Friend
2
informal : a whimsical or eccentric person
The local TV stations virtually ignored him, and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution portrayed him as a screwball with a harebrained scheme.William Oscar Johnson

screwball

2 of 2

adjective

informal
: extremely eccentric or whimsical : zany
a screwball comedy
his screwball charm
By some ditsy, screwball logic, the Cubs decided that Dean had shown enough of his old flair to warrant another season, and so they went ahead and asked him back.Paul Auster

Examples of screwball in a Sentence

Noun She really did that? What a screwball. a screwball who liked to save lint and bits of string Adjective she's always off on some screwball plan
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Rockwell gets more screen time, striking up a scruffy screwball comedy dynamic with Howard’s character. Peter Debruge, Variety, 31 Jan. 2024 O’Neal then signed up to star for Bogdanovich opposite Streisand in the screwball farce What’s Up, Doc?, an homage to the fabled Cary Grant–Katharine Hepburn 1938 comedy Bringing Up Baby. Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Dec. 2023 Last fall, Clooney and Julia Roberts appeared to discuss screwball comedies as part of their promotional tour for Ticket to Paradise. Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 Aug. 2023 But O'Neal's best and most charming work resulted from his skill as a comedic leading man, most particularly on display in Peter Bogdanovich's 1972 film What's Up, Doc?, a love letter to the screwball comedy. Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 8 Dec. 2023 Captivated by the international screwball romance, the book’s enthusiastic fanbase has created everything from artistic renderings of swoon-worthy moments between main characters Alex and Henry to playlists based on songs McQuiston wrote into the plot. Joe Lynch, Billboard, 8 Aug. 2023 The title of this gross-out screwball bro-comedy pretty much says it all. Jennifer Ouellette and Sean M. Carroll, Ars Technica, 24 Nov. 2023 This ingenious satire was adapted from a vintage stage piece, Mon Crime by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, that was the basis of Hollywood’s screwball comedy True Confession, starring Carole Lombard in 1937. Armond White, National Review, 26 Jan. 2024 The American Cinematheque is giving viewers a little treat as the year is on the way out the door with a series spotlighting three actors who were screwball masters: Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard and Barbara Stanwyck. Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2023
Adjective
Invariably in screwball plots like this, the precious cargo ends up in the wrong hands. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019 Here, Johnson applies a screwball procedural framework to a true story of tech-world boom and bust, building his movie on a clash of values and personalities. A.a. Dowd, Chron, 12 May 2023 Each event becomes screwball one-act with different chaos ensembles. Darren Franich, EW.com, 16 Feb. 2023 Little wonder the screwball comedy is practically a lost genre. Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 21 May 2020 These two also know how to banter like they’ve been thrown into a Golden Age screwball comedy. Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 17 May 2020 The whole evening was unraveling along with the ballerina’s costume, replaced by a screwball comedy. Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2020 But for the first time in a while, 60 seemingly screwball words at the bottom of Alabama’s game contracts are more than a formality. Michael Casagrande | McAsagrande@al.com, al, 6 May 2020 And then there’s his inborn ear for every shade of human babble, here a transcendent four-hander, there a screwball travelogue, everywhere argot and idiolect and argument. New York Times, 23 Apr. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'screwball.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1908, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

circa 1936, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of screwball was in 1908

Dictionary Entries Near screwball

Cite this Entry

“Screwball.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/screwball. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

screwball

1 of 2 noun
screw·​ball ˈskrü-ˌbȯl How to pronounce screwball (audio)
1
: a baseball pitch that moves away from a straight path in a direction opposite to a curve
2
: a crazy person : nut

screwball

2 of 2 adjective

More from Merriam-Webster on screwball

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!