knuckle ball

or knuck·le·ball (nŭk′əl-bôl′)

n. Baseball

A slow pitch that has almost no spin and veers erratically, thrown by gripping the ball with the nails or knuckles near the tips of the index and middle fingers, and often the third finger.

knuck′le·ball′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

knuck′le ball`

or knuck′le•ball`,

a slow baseball pitch that moves erratically toward home plate, delivered by holding the ball between the thumb and the knuckles or fingertips.

Also called knuck•ler (ˈnʌk lər)

[1905–10, Amer.]

knuck′le•ball`er, n.

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References in periodicals archive ?

By the end of the decade, however, after struggling with a sore arm, he was barely hanging on with the expansion Seattle Pilots by getting batters out with a knuckle ball.

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Yet there were two other moments which demonstrated that Archer (above) possesses a rare skill: a first-ball lbw to get rid of Aaron Finch, which set the tone, and a brilliantly disguised knuckle ball (a delivery sent down from a knuckle grip rather than fingers, which effectively arrives after the shot has been played) to fool Glenn Maxwell.

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Tye drew the first blood for Punjab as his knuckle ball played the trick to dismiss opener Rahane (9) in the fourth over.

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In his youth, Sonny loved playing baseball and was known for his knuckle ball. He later played for 15 years on the Norton Company's softball league.

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How is this any different that the spin-revealing contact lenses that Brian Roberts (Orioles) uses or Doug Mirabellis' (Red Sox) knuckle ball snagging, over-sized, softball catcher's mit?

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The broadhead takes over the controls and there's no telling where the Nolan Ryan knuckle ball will end up.

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"Gene Bearden's flood of knuckle ball pitches," Boston sportswriter Jerry Nason wrote, "swarms upon the plate like a covey of geese coming into a marsh."

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I said in the profile that, like an aging pitcher whose fast ball has failed him, Dubus would have to learn how to throw a knuckle ball to regain the writing form that had carried him into the major league of American letters.