screwball

1 of 2

noun

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

Back 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

2

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

screwball

2 of 2

adjective

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

Synonyms

Noun

• character
• codger
• crack
• crackbrain
• crackpot
• crank
• eccentric
• flake
• fruitcake
• head case
• kook
• nut
• nutcase
• nutter [British slang]
• oddball
• oddity
• original
• quiz
• weirdo
• zany

Adjective

• absurd
• asinine
• balmy
• brainless
• bubbleheaded
• cockeyed
• crackpot
• crazy
• cuckoo
• daffy
• daft
• dippy
• dotty
• fatuous
• featherheaded
• fool
• foolish
• half-baked
• half-witted
• harebrained
• inept
• insane
• jerky
• kooky
• kookie
• loony
• looney
• lunatic
• lunkheaded
• mad
• nonsensical
• nutty
• preposterous
• sappy
• senseless
• silly
• simpleminded
• stupid
• tomfool
• unwise
• wacky
• whacky
• weak-minded
• witless
• zany

Examples 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

Noun

Imagine all those ideas on identity, fate, talent, libido, and self-referential consciousness in the screwball comedy Being John Malkovich remade into a movie musical about British pop star Robbie Williams. —Armond White, National Review, 10 Jan. 2025

If screwball comedies provided the comic escape people needed in the Great Depression, these days some Americans want to scream. —Eric Kohn, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Jan. 2025

Adjective

Where to watch: Disney+ 'Fly Me to the Moon' There's screwball rom-com nostalgia at play in this throwback tale starring Scarlett Johansson as a marketing executive hired by NASA to sell the public on the 1969 mission to the moon. —Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 24 Dec. 2024

His offstage demeanor was as analytical as his onstage character was screwball. —Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1908, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

circa 1936, in the meaning defined above

Kids 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 adjective

: zany entry 2