baller

• balla (all senses except "person who divides molten metal")

From ball +‎ -er. The sense referring to extravagance comes from NBA b-ballers being wealthy.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔːlɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɔːlɚ

baller (plural ballers)

1. A kitchenware utensil for cutting ball-shaped pieces of foods.

   Hypernym: utensil

   Hyponym: melon baller

   fruit baller

2. A person employed to divide molten metal into separate balls before it is hammered out.

   Hypernyms: worker < person

3. (sports, slang) One who plays basketball (US) or association football (UK).

   Hypernyms: player, athlete < person

   Hyponyms: basketball player, basketballer, hooper; football player, footballer

   • 1995, Skee-Lo, “I Wish”‎^[1]:

     I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller.

   • 2009 July 17, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Obama Tells Fellow Blacks: ‘No Excuses’ for Any Failure”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     I want them aspiring to be scientists and engineers, doctors and teachers, not just ballers and rappers.

4. (African-American Vernacular, slang) One who has swag and lives an extravagant lifestyle.

   Hypernym: person

   Did you see that car? He’s such a baller.

   • 1997, “It's All About the Benjamins”, in No Way Out, performed by Puff Daddy ft. Lil' Kim, the Lox, and The Notorious B.I.G.:

     Now… what y'all wanna do? / Wanna be ballers? Shot-callers? Brawlers?

   • 2004, Amy Winehouse, Salaam Remi, “Fuck Me Pumps”, in Frank, performed by Amy Winehouse:

     But you really wouldn't mind a millionaire / All them big ballers / Don't do nothing for ya / But you'd love a rich man six-foot-two or taller

5. (vulgar) A person having sex.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:copulator

   Hypernym: person

7. (Philippines, fashion, colloquial) Ellipsis of baller band, a silicone rubber wristband, originating as a basketball sports wristband.

baller (comparative more baller, superlative most baller)

1. (African-American Vernacular, slang) Very cool, especially due to extravagance.
   • 2004, “Black Stacey”, in Saul Williams, performed by Saul Williams:

     All you baller playa's got some insecurities too / That you could cover up, bling it up, cash in and cha-ching it up

   • 2014, Kele Moon, The Viper, →ISBN:

     (Being an OG is not as baller as you'd think.)

   • 2015 December 11, Viputheshwar Sitaraman, “Q&A: Mahbod Moghadam — Cofounder, Everipedia”, in HuffPost‎^[3]:

     The most baller Los Angeles investor, Paige Craig, doesn’t have a Wikipedia page, but you can find out everything about him on his Everipedia page. Are you going to be pitching him?

   • 2016, Andy Cohen, Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries, →ISBN:

     Had dinner with the Arkins at Giuliana's restaurant, RPM, which is like a nightclub. They put a security guard in front of our booth, which felt very baller.

• (AAVE): playa, player; live large
• footballer

• Bellar

Borrowed from, or related to, Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”).
Compare Italian ballare, Spanish bailar, Inherited from Late Latin ballāre = to dance.

• Audio:

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baller

1. to dance with one's arms swinging
2. to swing or sway; to dangle

• “baller”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

baller

1. inflection of ballern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative

baller m

1. indefinite plural of ball

• ball

baller n

1. indefinite plural of ball (Etymology 2)