pinball

UK/ˈpɪnˌbɔːl/US/ˈpɪnˌbɔːl/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,869 of 15,258neutral

Pinball is the game of shooting a steel ball round a sloping board. Flippers, bumpers, lights, and a machine that shakes if you push it.

The board is full of targets that score when the ball hits them, and the whole skill is keeping it in play with the flippers. It was banned in several American cities for decades as a game of chance until somebody demonstrated the skill in court. Tilting the machine too hard ends the ball, which is where the word tilt comes from. The verb means to bounce about like the ball.

Definitions of pinball

1nounpinballA game in which a ball is propelled around a sloping board with flippers.B2
“There was an old pinball machine in the corner.”

Where it comes from

From pin + ball.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 24 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

pinball in the wild

Most pinball machines use one ball per turn, except during special multi-ball phases, and the game ends when the ball(s) from the last turn are lost.
Pinball
The biggest pinball machine manufacturers historically include Bally Manufacturing, Gottlieb, Williams Electronics and Stern Pinball.
Pinball
Williams initially was a manufacturer of pinball machines.
WMS Industries
Stern Pinball, Inc., founded in 1986 as Data East Pinball, is a North American pinball machine manufacturer.
Stern (game company)
Like any pinball game, the main objective is to get points, using the different modes of advances to score them at a higher rate.
Pokémon Pinball

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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