Meaning of Calvinball | Babel Free

Definitions

A deliberately absurd sport without fixed rules.

uncountable

Examples

“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?”

“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 character”

“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.”

“A more unusual sport is calvinball, which involves spontaneous rules that are never the same twice.”

“Chick Lit, and pretty much all of publishing, plays a lot like Calvinball. There aren’t any rules.”

““House rules parcheesi” is distinct from “Calvinball” in that the latter has no set rules, whereas the former seems to have very specific rules, which are never divulged in the strip, under any circumstances.”

“If the limitations of life were like the rules in Calvinball, someone like Nozick might ask if there would be anything left for people to do.”

“The Court’s conservative majority is playing constitutional Calvinball, in which it’s never too late to change the rules.”

CEFR level