In the past couple of weeks, I have stumbled across a number of Web pages in which the word “ball” was used when author clearly meant to use the word “bawl”. The misuse is always the same:
I balled my eyes out.
Many people make this mistake. See for yourself.
“I balled my eyes out” is both incorrect and funny in a Beavis and Butthead sort of way. When “ball” is used as a verb, it means either “to form into a ball” or even better, it’s a vulgar slang term for “to have sex with”.
Of course, if you wrote that you “balled someone’s brains out,” you’re probably using “balled” correctly.
The correct way to write the phrase is:
I bawled my eyes out.
That’s because “bawl” means “to cry or sob loudly”.
Class dimissed.