(′böl ′əp)

(engineering) During a drilling operation, collection by a portion of the drilling equipment of a mass of viscous consolidated material. Failure of an anchor to hold on a soft bottom, by pulling out with a large ball of mud attached.

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verb

1. To harm irreparably through inept handling; make a mess: blunder, boggle, botch, bungle, foul up, fumble, gum up, mess up, mishandle, mismanage, muddle, muff, spoil. Informal bollix up, muck up. Slang blow, goof up, louse up, screw up, snafu. Idioms: make a muck of. See correct/incorrect, help/harm/harmless.
2. To put into total disorder: confuse, disorder, jumble, mess up, muddle, scramble, snarl. Slang snafu. Idioms: play havoc with. See order/disorder.

1.  Roll something into a ball, as in She loved to knit and was always balling up her yarn. [Early 1800s]
2.  Confuse or bungle, as in Jane got all balled up at the beginning of her speech, or Henry really balled up that exam. This term may come from the fact that when a horse is driven over soft or partly thawed snow, the snow becomes packed into icy balls on its hoofs, making it stumble. Another theory is that it alludes to the vulgar term balls for testicles. [First half of 1900s]

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IN BRIEF: n. - Something badly botched or muddled.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The verb has one meaning:

Meaning #1: make a mess of, destroy or ruin
  Synonyms: botch, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub, screw up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck up

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