Meaning
Responsibility for the next move now rests with you, because everyone else involved has done all they can or is waiting on your answer. It is said to the person concerned or about them, most often in negotiations, deals and stalled projects, and assigns the next move without assigning blame. Neutral register, usable formally or conversationally, though it can sound dismissive when the hearer is already under pressure. Regional use: General English.
Origin
A metaphor from tennis: once the ball has been struck onto your side of the net, the rules oblige you, and only you, to play the next shot. Grammarist, which dates the figurative use to the 1960s, notes that the image depends on the settled vocabulary of lawn tennis, a sport formalized in the late 19th century, with the figurative phrase appearing in everyday conversation only much later. Grammar Monster, checking Google Ngram data covering two centuries of print, finds the expression rare before the mid-20th century and concludes that it did not become popular until around 1970. Neither source documents an individual coiner or a first citation, so the arrival is best described as gradual, spreading through American business and political language before becoming standard across general English.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- put the ball in someone's court
- the ball is in their court
- the ball's in your court
Usage Examples
- We have sent the revised contract twice now; the ball is in your court.
- The union has tabled its final offer, so the ball is in the government's court.
- Do not chase him again, she advised; you have replied politely and the ball is in his court.