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drop the ball

to fail in one's responsibilities or duties; to not complete something

Etymology:

  • One of the earliest uses of the term drop the ball being used idiomatically, rather than literally, is from Marcus Goodrich, Delilah (1941)
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Jack refused to continue with the project. We gave the project to Julie since Jack dropped the ball on the project.

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Submitted by TriplePurple on August 22, 2024

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Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to drop the ball

Drop in the Bucketdrop the glovesdrop the pilotground ball with eyesdrop shipdrop offget the drop ondrop out of warpdrop offdrop the writdrop outdrop someone a linedrop outdrop the f-bomb

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