Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BALL, n.¹ [G. ball; D. bal; Sw. ball; Dan. ballon; Russ. bal; Sp. bala, bola; It. palla; L. pila; W. pêl, pellen; Arm. bolat; Fr. balle, boule. A ball may signify a mass from collecting, or it may be that which is driven, from the root of L. pello; probably the former.]

1. A round body; spherical substance, whether natural or artificial; or a body nearly round; as, a ball for play; a ball of thread; a ball of snow.
2. A bullet; a ball of iron or lead for cannon, muskets, &c.
3. A printer's ball, consisting of hair or wool, covered with leather or skin, and fastened to a stock, called a ball-stock, and used to put ink on the types in the forms.
4. The globe or earth, from its figure.
5. A globe borne as ensign of authority; as, to hold the ball of a kingdom. – Bacon.
6. Any part of the body that is round or protuberant; as, the eye ball; the ball of the thumb or foot.
7. The weight at the bottom of a pendulum.
8. Among the Cornish miners in England, a tin mine.
9. In pyrotechnics, a composition of combustible ingredients, which serve to burn, smoke or give light. Ball-stock, among printers, a stock somewhat hollow at one end, to which balls of skin, stuffed with wool, are fastened, and which serves as a handle. Ball-vein, among miners, a sort of iron ore, found in loose masses, of a circular form, containing sparkling particles. – Encyc. Ball and socket, an instrument used in surveying and astronomy, made of brass, with a perpetual screw, to move horizontally, obliquely, or vertically. Puff-ball, in botany, the Lycoperdon, a genus of funguses. Fire-ball, a meteor; a luminous globe darting through the atmosphere; also, a bag of canvas filled with gunpowder, sulphur, pitch, saltpeter, &c., to be thrown by the hand, or from mortars, to set fire to houses.