How to Use knuckleball in a Sentence

knuckleball

noun
Definition of knuckleballnext
  • The entire point of a knuckleball is to keep the ball from spinning.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 26 June 2021
  • Then a scout named Goldie Holt showed him how to throw a knuckleball.
    — Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 18 Oct. 2016
  • Phil Niekro, who rode his knuckleball to the Baseball Hall of Fame, dies at 81.
    — Editors, USA TODAY, 27 Dec. 2020
  • Chris Nowlin would love to teach you how to throw a knuckleball.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2021
  • That blast came off a knuckleball from the Braves' Phil Niekro on the first homestand of the 1970 season.
    — Matt Young, Houston Chronicle, 10 July 2018
  • Defying age, of course, is part of the magic of the knuckleball.
    — New York Times, 28 Dec. 2020
  • And for those few seconds, nothing in the whole darn world can touch a knuckleball.
    — Andy Nesbitt, USA TODAY, 10 Mar. 2021
  • His first strikeout of the inning was on a knuckleball.
    — Bobby Nightengale, Cincinnati.com, 11 July 2018
  • Kern lists his pitches as a two-seam and four-seam fastball plus a knuckleball.
    — Robert Avery, Houston Chronicle, 10 July 2019
  • Holman had to be carted off the field, but the Spartans got the ball to set up Coghlin’s knuckleball of a winning kick.
    — Chris Solari, USA TODAY, 29 Nov. 2020
  • This was a solid strike, causing the shot to wobble knuckleball style.
    — Frank Dell’apa, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Aug. 2019
  • That’s not ideal, exactly; the best knuckleballs often zig and zag away from the mitt.
    — Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 1 July 2017
  • Screwball, knuckleball, spitball, from down by his hip to up around his ear and all points in between.
    — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 29 Mar. 2020
  • But there was a secret knuckleball after that, an uni hand roll.
    — Cesar Hernandez, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 Apr. 2023
  • Even the most skilled hitters can struggle against the dancing knuckleball.
    — Blair Kerkhoff, kansascity, 8 June 2018
  • Still, the Vikings' chances were few and far between until Trujillo broke through with her knuckleball of a header.
    — Grant Gordon, latimes.com, 16 Feb. 2018
  • Feierabend gets at a number of the factors that endanger the knuckleball.
    — Matthew Gutierrez, The Denver Post, 15 Aug. 2019
  • His measurements revealed that a knuckleball takes just as smooth a path as any other pitch.
    — Guest Blogger, Discover Magazine, 15 Nov. 2012
  • Cleveland's only scoring in the first half came on Parkey's 41-yard field, a kick that danced like a knuckleball in the wind before curving inside the uprights.
    — Tom Withers, Star Tribune, 1 Nov. 2020
  • Feeney’s first snap to quarterback Rivers in the shotgun formation was a bit of a knuckleball, and some of his snaps weren’t as crisp as Pouncey’s usually are.
    — Los Angeles Times, 6 Oct. 2019
  • But judging the character of a baseball player is like trying to hit a knuckleball.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 12 Jan. 2020
  • All told, Wilhelm threw just 99 pitches — 90% of them knuckleballs, which danced their way past flailing batters.
    — Mike Klingaman, Baltimore Sun, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Vinatieri booted a low knuckleball that literally hit the crossbar on its way over.
    — Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star, 10 Dec. 2017
  • Dickey (3-2) struggled to control his knuckleball but allowed only three runs and four hits in six innings.
    — Charles Odum, courant.com, 2 May 2017
  • Bouton used that knuckleball in 1969 with the expansion Seattle Pilots and the Houston Astros.
    — Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 11 July 2019
  • The Braves supposedly wanted Uecker in 1967 to catch Phil Niekro's knuckleball.
    — Jr Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6 Apr. 2018
  • The teenage sensation took his goal wonderfully, collecting a pass on the edge of the box and driving a knuckleball shot beyond Rimando.
    — SI.com, 1 Aug. 2019
  • Smith and Sakib also studied the aerodynamics of knuckleballs with their apparatus and found that the flow will separate near the back of the ball any time the seam is located there mid-flight.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 23 Nov. 2018
  • Blandino also has a nasty knuckleball, as Slater well knows after serving as Blandino’s catch partner as a freshman at Stanford.
    — Susan Slusser, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Mar. 2022
  • There are reasons to worry about all three as perimeter shooters long-term as Barrett shoots a bit of a knuckleball, Reddish’s mechanics are a bit of a mess, and Williamson is viewed as almost a non-threat from outside.
    — Jeremy Woo, SI.com, 28 Mar. 2018

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

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