screw·ball
ˈskrü-ˌbȯl 
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
Scientific AmericanBack 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
Tom Friend2
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
William Oscar Johnson
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
Paul AusterExamples 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
Brian Truitt, USA Today, 19 Sep. 2025
Each performance arrives with a sense of reinvention — not unlike Hepburn, whose leap from screwball comedies in the 1930s to searing dramas in the 1960s charted an artistic evolution rarely equaled in Hollywood.
—Clayton Davis, Variety, 30 Aug. 2025
David Fear, Rolling Stone, 15 Oct. 2025
Her feature screenplay The Healing News of June was named Faculty Selects at Columbia University’s Film Festival and BCDF Pictures (To Leslie, The Hating Game) is attached to produce her screwball rom com feature, Slab Serif.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for screwball
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Noun
Just think of the gridiron characters who've hit the big screen over the years, giving us awesome cinematic moments in everything from screwball comedies to rousing biopics.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 19 Sep. 2025
Each performance arrives with a sense of reinvention — not unlike Hepburn, whose leap from screwball comedies in the 1930s to searing dramas in the 1960s charted an artistic evolution rarely equaled in Hollywood.
—Clayton Davis, Variety, 30 Aug. 2025
Adjective
Hawke sells all of Hart’s delusions, destructive impulses, and high-velocity downward spirals with an energy that keeps this bitchy, old-school collection of bon mots and screwball bickering moving along nicely.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 15 Oct. 2025
Her feature screenplay The Healing News of June was named Faculty Selects at Columbia University’s Film Festival and BCDF Pictures (To Leslie, The Hating Game) is attached to produce her screwball rom com feature, Slab Serif.
—Matt Grobar, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for screwball
Cite this Entry
“Screwball.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/screwball. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
screwball
1 of 2 noun
screw·ball
ˈskrü-ˌbȯl
1
: a baseball pitch that moves away from a straight path in a direction opposite to a curve
2
informal
: a foolish or odd person
screwball
2 of 2 adjectiveLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
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