balls to the wall
(US, idiomatic, slang) ; (at) maximum speed.
Etymology timeline
Born ~1960 · 1 year of recorded useSeen in the wild
Balls to the wall, “Fuck It We Ball” energy.
Trump is being played in front of the entire world. Time for congress to do what has to be done. Balls to the wall,let's get this over and done with.
Literally balls to the wall 😏😏😈
They balls to the wall made a decision to set it in Florida unforced?? Are we sure DeSantis isn't keeping devs family's as collateral in his doom palace?
Definitions
(US, idiomatic, slang) ; (at) maximum speed.
“I always go balls to the wall,” founding Ape Gordon Goner tells Rolling Stone over Zoom.
Comments
(US, idiomatic, slang) With maximum effort or commitment.
"balls to the wall" means: With maximum effort or commitment.. This is informal slang, common in casual speech, texting and social media, but not appropriate for school work, applications or professional settings. There is no real cause for concern in itself; it is everyday peer vocabulary. If your child uses it, a light comment about audience and register is usually enough — no need to escalate. Context, more than the word, tells you whether to follow up.
"balls to the wall" means: With maximum effort or commitment.. Register: informal slang, fine in casual conversation, texting and social media but not in academic essays, business writing or formal speech. Note the regional or dialect label (US) — usage may sound odd outside that variety. A common non-native mistake is to use the word in the wrong register, or to assume one fixed meaning when it is actually polysemous; always check the surrounding register and the audience before producing it yourself. In formal writing, prefer a neutral synonym or a short descriptive phrase, and use this word only when you have heard or read it being used naturally in a comparable context.
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Other words near "balls to the wall" (B)
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