ball up

McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary:

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(′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.

ball up

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verb

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.
To put into total disorder: confuse, disorder, jumble, mess up, muddle, scramble, snarl. Slang snafu. Idioms: play havoc with. See order/disorder.

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms:

ball up

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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]

Word Tutor:

balls-up

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

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McGraw-Hill Science & Technology Dictionary McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read

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Roget's Thesaurus Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read

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American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read

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