Get the ball rolling


Also, keep the ball rolling. Start an undertaking; also, keep an undertaking from flagging. For example, Let’s get the ball rolling by putting up some posters, or The hostess kept the ball rolling, talking to each of the guests in turn. This expression originated in one or another sport in which it was important to keep a ball moving. [ ; late 1700s ]
Also see: get the show on the road

Read Also:

  • Get the bird

    verb phrase To be greeted with catcalls, hisses, boos, etc [1922+ Vaudeville; fr the fancied attack by big birds, ”hissing geese,” when a show is radically disliked, a notion found by 1825; the form get the big bird is found by 1886]

  • Get the business

    verb phrase To be treated roughly; be punished or rebuked: When they found out his record he got the business (1940s+) see: the business

  • Get the call

    verb phrase To be appointed or designated: Boyce got the call. So it’s his (1940s+)

  • Get the can

    see under get the ax

  • Get the drift

    verb phrase To see the tendency of discourse, esp what one is hinting at: And it won’t show up. Get my drift? [1927+; drift in this sense is found by 1549] Also, catch the drift. Understand the general meaning or purport. For example, I didn’t get the drift—do they want to go or not? or […]


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