Step up your game and impress your friends with your knowledge of these sports idioms and terms
20 Sports Terms That Have Become Part of Everyday Conversations
Published on Jan. 10, 2025
Super Bowl Sunday is almost here. Whether you’re into the commercials, the halftime show, the snacks or the big game itself, you’re probably getting excited. And even if you’re not a rabid fan like I am (hoping that my Giants will return to the playoffs someday), you undoubtedly use terms that originated in football all the time. In fact, you probably use all sorts of sports idioms in your daily life—even if you don’t realize it.
There’s a reason these idioms are part of our everyday vocabulary. “We’re a sports-obsessed nation,” says Michael Adams, PhD, a professor of English and linguistics at Indiana University, “so all this stuff kind of trickles down.”
Ahead, we’re taking a look at 20 everyday words and phrases with roots in the wide world of sports. Get ready to step up your vocabulary game! Your newfound knowledge of sports idioms will come in handy at this year’s Super Bowl party.
Get Reader’s Digest’s Read Up newsletter for more grammar, humor, travel, tech and fun facts all week long.
Sports idioms used on and off the field
With so many sports terms in use beyond game day, it begs the question: Why does everyday language so heavily feature words originating in the world of sports? “There’s something that’s very specific to a certain discourse with a very precise meaning, and then we generalize it,” Adams says. “We recognize the significance of a phrase and then expand it metaphorically to a more commonplace situation than the one it was invented for. That’s just language behavior.”
So which sports idioms and terms are always on the tip of our tongues? The 20 that follow will be familiar to most people, but their origins may surprise you.
Kickoff
Sports: Football, rugby and soccer
American football has roots in two other sports: rugby and soccer, the latter of which is known as football everywhere but in the United States. So there’s naturally quite a bit of shared lingo, though football is much more popular here (sorry, Ilona Maher). Games for all three of these sports begin with a kickoff, literally the first kick to the ball.
But the word can refer to the beginning of any event or enterprise, which is why I’ve chosen it to, ahem, kick off this list.
Monday morning quarterback
Sport: Football
Most professional football games, including the Super Bowl, are played on Sunday. So if you spend the next day second-guessing decisions made during the game and proclaiming that the head coach should never have gone for that two-point conversion, you, my friend, are a Monday morning quarterback.
In the real world, this dismissive football idiom, which came into use in the early 1930s, applies to anyone who assumes wisdom after an event has occurred. As they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty.
Play hardball
Sport: Baseball
Hardball has been used as a synonym for baseball (as opposed to softball) since 1887. But since 1949, it’s also been used as a slang term for ruthless, uncompromising methods or dealings, especially in business and political negotiations. Think: “If they won’t budge, we might have to play hardball.”
Slam dunk
Sport: Basketball
In this sport, invented in 1891 by Canadian clergyman, educator and physician James Naismith, a slam dunk is a shot made by jumping up and pushing the basketball downward into the basket. But by as early as 1984, the term had evolved to mean anything that’s certain to succeed. For example, a court case in which a defense attorney presents a video clearly proving her client’s alibi and, therefore, innocence is a slam dunk.
Hail Mary
Sport: Football
One of the most dramatic plays in all of sports, a Hail Mary is a long forward pass thrown by a quarterback, usually in the last seconds of a game and usually with low odds that it will be caught. The term hails from a Roman Catholic prayer (dating back to the 15th century in its current form, though parts of it are straight from the Bible) but became popular after the Dallas Cowboys’s Roger Staubach claimed to have said the words while throwing a game-winning touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings in 1975.
Now, a Hail Mary can describe any kind of long-shot attempt taken when all other efforts have failed.
Front-runner
Sport: Horse racing
Since 1896, front-runner has referred to a horse that runs best when in the front of the pack. By 1906, the meaning had expanded to mean the person who is leading in, or seems likely to win, a race or other contest; it’s used frequently in politics.
The ball is in your court
Sport: Tennis
In tennis, if the ball is in your court, it’s on your side of the net, and it’s your turn to hit it. So when you tell someone, “The ball is in your court,” you’re letting them know that you’ve done your part, and now the decision or responsibility is on them. You may tell your partner, “I chose the last movie. The ball is in your court tonight.”
Moving the goalposts
Sports: Football and rugby
Though the first professional football game (between the Allegheny Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club) was played on Nov. 12, 1892, the rules of the game, including exactly where the goalposts are located, have changed several times since then. In the same way that moving those uprights in football makes scoring more difficult, moving the goalposts on a project—by changing the criteria or expectations—can make success more elusive.
Throw a curveball
Sport: Baseball
The definition of curveball, “a delivery in which the pitcher causes the ball to deviate from a straight path by imparting spin,” dates back to 1875. But since 1936, it’s been used to mean any challenge that’s unexpected, surprising or disorienting—for instance, when a client throws a curveball with last-minute changes.
Fun fact: Though early forms of bat-and-ball games have been played for centuries across various cultures, the first recorded game of the sport we know as baseball was played in 1846 in New Jersey.
From the jump
Sport: Basketball
The jump ball is the opening play of a basketball game, where the referee tosses the ball into the air and two players jump to try to gain possession, and it’s the symbol of the start of the game.
Off the basketball court, when someone says “from the jump,” they’re talking about something that happened right at the beginning. A co-worker might say, “I liked her idea from the jump.”
In your wheelhouse
Sport: Baseball
The original meaning of wheelhouse, dating from 1835, is the pilot house on a boat, which can be seen as the center of a ship’s power. In baseball, since 1959, it’s the area of the strike zone where a particular batter is able to hit the ball most forcefully.
But you’ll often hear the term in the corporate world too. Think of your strike zone as the skills you bring to the job. “So that’s how we get the idea of people having a wheelhouse,” says Adams. “It’s not just the office you work in. It’s the specific thing that you do best.”
Punt
Sports: Football and rugby
When the team punts, they drop the ball and kick it before it hits the ground to give the opposing team possession farther down the field. Since punting means abandoning (at least for a while) the attempt to score points for your own team, the verb has developed a secondary meaning of postponing a decision or action or deferring responsibility for the situation to someone else. You know, like when you asked your manager about how the budget cuts would impact your workload and she punted the question to the finance department.
Drop the gloves
Sport: Ice hockey
There’s a long history of physical fights in hockey games (though stricter penalties in the NHL have curtailed their occurrence), with players literally taking off their gloves to punch one another with bare knuckles. The saying “I went to a hockey game, and a boxing match broke out” exists for a reason!
Off the ice, the phrase means to engage in a fight, whether figurative or literal, and confront someone or something directly: “He’s ready to drop the gloves and tackle the issue head-on.”
Par for the course
Sport: Golf
Many historians claim the game we know as golf began in 15th-century Scotland; some, however, trace the sport’s roots back to the Ancient Roman game of paganica. In today’s game, par is the number of strokes that a scratch player (one with a handicap of zero) should need to complete a course; 86% of regulation 18-hole golf courses in the United States have a par of 71 or 72.
People have been saying “par for the course” about something typical or expected since 1947.
Rain check
Sport: Baseball
The term for a ticket given to a spectator at a baseball game interrupted by or postponed because of rain, enabling the holder to attend a future event without further charge, was first used in 1884 and soon spread to other outdoor events. By 1955, retailers started giving rain checks as a promise to provide goods or services that were temporarily unavailable, typically at a sale price.
These days, we use it anytime we want to reschedule a social obligation. “Mind if I take a rain check on dinner?” you might ask a pal after an extra-long workday.
Jump the gun
Sport: Track and field
The firing of a gun is traditionally the official start of a race. To jump the gun is to start running before the signal is given (often leading to a warning or disqualification).
Off the field, jumping the gun is doing something before the expected or appropriate time or acting prematurely—say, making a judgment call before all the facts are in.
Full-court press
Sport: Basketball
This term for a defensive strategy in which intense pressure is applied to the opposing team over the entire length of the court also means a vigorous and concerted effort or campaign. So when you’re putting in maximum effort, especially in a challenging situation, you’re giving it the full-court press.
Throw in the towel
Sport: Boxing
If a fighter is taking too many hits and is clearly outmatched, the coach (or corner) will throw a towel into the boxing ring to signal the fighter’s surrender, conceding defeat to protect the boxer from further harm. Since 1915, the meaning of the phrase has expanded outside of a boxing match to mean “give up” in any situation that seems unwinnable.
Blindsided
Sport: Football
Of all the terms on this list, blindsided is the only one that may not have originated in sports, according to Adams. The first known usage of blind side as a noun, for the side on which a person’s view is obstructed, is 1393, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The verb—to catch someone off guard, often with a surprise you didn’t see something coming—isn’t recorded until 1950, with the football usage (hitting someone on their blind side) first recorded in 1955.
“I suspected that I was going to find a competition between the general sense of that word and the sports sense,” says Adams. “And then here’s the tricky thing: The OED tells us that it’s just a five-year gap between the two recorded uses. So it’s really not possible to tell which is the chicken and which is the egg.”
Down to the wire
Sport: Horse racing
This phrase is thought to have originated from horse racing in the 19th century, when a wire was stretched above the finish line to determine the winner. If a race was very close, the outcome wasn’t clear until the horses crossed “down to the wire.” Today, it’s often used to describe the decisive moment at the end of a situation when time is nearly up and a critical decision or action is needed.
Let’s hope Super Bowl LIX comes down to the wire so we all get to enjoy a great game!
About the expert
|
Why trust us
At Reader’s Digest, we’re committed to producing high-quality content by writers with expertise and experience in their field in consultation with relevant, qualified experts. We rely on reputable primary sources, including government and professional organizations and academic institutions as well as our writers’ personal experiences where appropriate. We verify all facts and data, back them with credible sourcing and revisit them over time to ensure they remain accurate and up to date. For this piece on sports idioms and terms, Jo Ann Liguori tapped her decades of experience as a copy editor to ensure that all information is accurate and offers the best possible advice to readers. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.
Sources:
- Michael Adams, professor of English and linguistics at Indiana University Bloomington; phone interview, Jan. 6, 2025
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Britannica: “Golf”
- National Baseball Hall of Fame: “Baseball History, American History and You”
- National Golf Foundation: “What’s Par for the Course?”
- NFL: “Moving the Goal Post”
- State of New Jersey: “The First Baseball Game”
- Pro Football Hall of Fame: “Football History”
- World of Basketball: “Basketball History”
