Calvinball
nounEtymology From Calvin + ball. From a fictional game without rules, played in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.
1
Games A deliberately absurd sport without fixed rules.
- And every time I would play serious tackle Nerf Calvinball out in the park somewhere, it played over and over in the back of my mind -- what would I do if I broke an arm?1996 June 17, Wayne Lockwood, "Nobody without health insurance is a slacker or a loser", Knight-Ridder
- At first my humans very much disliked it when I played croquet with them.... But eventually they decided to accept my participation, and renamed the game “Calvinball,” after the game of some comic book character1998, Chris Glaser, Unleashed: The Wit and Wisdom of Calvin the Dog, Westminster John Knox Press, →ISBN, page 71:
4 more examples
- 2002 March–April, Bret Rappaport and Joni Green, “Calvinball Cannot Be Played on This Court: The Sanctity of Auction Procedures in Bankruptcy”, Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice, volume 11, pages 189–212
- They are required to play the game of Nomic, in some form, or alternatively, the games Calvinball or Mao, which are basically the same.2005, The Grate^([sic]) Book of Moo, Church of MOO, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page ccclvii:
- A more unusual sport is calvinball, which involves spontaneous rules that are never the same twice.2006, Lee Mothes, The New Island Relocation Guide: How to Live on the Island of Possibility, →ISBN, page 50:
- Chick Lit, and pretty much all of publishing, plays a lot like Calvinball. There aren’t any rules.2006, Cathy Yardley, Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 148: