slimeball
/ˈslaɪmˌbɔl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.99 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person who is slimy (that is, sneaky or underhanded) or otherwise undesirable.
Colloquial; Derogatory
Example Sentences
- "The eggs [of a lancet fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum)] that pass out with the manure of an infested sheep do not hatch in the open. When eaten by the snail, they hatch and finally give rise to larvae that pass out of the snail's body in gelatinous "slime[-]balls.""
- "The cercariae contain massive glands, formerly considered to be penetration glands, but now believed to produce the slime responsible for the formation of these balls. It is likely that the slime produced by the snail itself may contribute, at least partly, to the formation of a slimeball."
- "These flukes have three hosts. [...] As the infected snail crawls along it leaves slime balls containing cercaria on grass. An ant, Formica fusca, the arthropod host for D. dendriticum in the United States, is infected when it ingests the slime balls. Mammals are infected by consuming ants containing encysted metacercaria."
- "Even slimeballs were entitled to representation, though."
- "And I put my hands on her jugs. She goes crazy. She says 'Take your hands off me slimeball!' So I go, 'Rona, watch your language!' And she goes, 'If you wanna have fun with your hands, why don't you pass the time playin' solitaire.'"
- "[T]here will always be spies, and spooks, and counterspooks. Some of these slimeballs are perhaps breaking into Pentagon computers at this very moment, finding the dirty pictures some bored programmer stored on a corner of the hard disk."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sley- Proto-Germanic *slīmą Old English slīm English slime Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-der. Proto-Germanic *balluz Old English *beall Middle English bal English ball English slimeball From slime + ball. Sense 1 (“a round lump made up of or coated with slime or a slime-like substance”) is a calque of German Schleimkugel, from Schleim (“mucus, slime”) + Kugel (“ball”), while sense 1.1 (“a mucus-coated lump containing the cercariae of a liver fluke”) may be a calque of German Schleimball (from Schleim (“slime”) + Ball (“ball”)).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈslaɪmˌbɔl/
- British English: /ˈslaɪm.bɔːl/