Standard Lemma guide

tunnelball

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

A children's game in which players stand in line with their feet apart, making a tunnel with their legs, down which the lead player propels a ball back to the last player, who runs with it to the front of the line and repeats; played competitively between teams for speed, or by a single team for recreation or exercise.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, UK, uncountable

Topics: games

Examples

  • 1994, Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read, Chopper 4: For the Term of His Unnatural Life, 2012, Pan Macmillan Australia, unnumbered page, They run the sports for ten days. This includes weightlifting, football, tennis, table tennis, cards, scrabble, chess, draughts, darts, quoits, volleyball, baseball, frisbee tossing, tunnelball, scramble ball, the piggyback race, the egg and spoon race, target handball, the spit the dummy contest, [...] .

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From tunnel + ball.