balls up meaning (slang): definition, etymology and quotations

balls-up

nounalso spelled balls-up

Etymology Balls in this sense refers to testicles. See also the verb, to balls up and go balls up.

Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, Slang, Vulgar Something which becomes muddled or botched in some way.

I was making a cake but when I added too much sugar, it became the balls-up of my cooking career.

verb

Etymology From balls + up; see also balls-up.

Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, Vulgar To make a mess of a situation.

He was putting everything he had into it, but he kept ballsing up.2009, Jan Kjaerstad, The Discoverer, →ISBN:
'We just have to get through without ballsing up2011, Lesley Thomson, A Kind of Vanishing, →ISBN:

Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, Vulgar To do something badly. To ruin a job.

He really ballsed up that paint work. It'll have to be redone!
It has got to the ludicrous stage that whenever Snedden makes a speech without actually ballsing something up irrevocably, they tell him he's the greatest thing since Winston Churchill;1977, Mungo MacCallum, Mungo's Canberra, page 142:

2 more examples

Bearing in mind that if you're teasing but you have to explain it, then you're not teasing, you're just ballsing things up and being a fucking thug.2010, A.L. Kennedy, Everything You Need, →ISBN:
We’re humans, we’re fallible, there is no medal for being right all the time; admitting we ballsed it up is not a weakness, it’s a superpower.2023 January 28, Justin Myers, “62 dating green flags that shout ‘this one’s a keeper’”, in The Guardian: