to drop the ball?

[alexinlove]

Hi, ESL students!


I'm running a survey aiming to identify if the English idioms cause confusion


and misunderstanding among ESL students and inhibit daily conversations.


Can you, please, tell me if the following idiom is clear to you


http://blog.idiophrases.com/post/86786817755/to-drop-the-ball and would


you be able to use it on a daily basis?


Thanks in advance.

 

[Tdol]

North Korean leaders have always been enigmatic ones: no one ever knew what made the tick

That should be makes them tick. I would delete ones.

 

[alexinlove]

That should be makes them tick. I would delete ones.

I agree. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[Tarheel]

I would say:

North Korean leaders have always been enigmatic. No one ever knows what makes them tick.

​

(Why did you pick that title? Just because it's an idiom?)

(BTW, can you guess who this is?)

 

[charliedeut]

Pardon both my ignorance and boldness: what does the title have to do with the subject matter of this thread?

 

[emsr2d2]

That's a very good question.

 

[alexinlove]

Pardon both my ignorance and boldness: what does the title have to do with the subject matter of this thread?​

Obviously, I confused the link referring to the idiom in question. I corrected it. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[BillHaverberg]

As a native speaker of American English, "drop the ball" means more than an individual failure. It is a failure that affects the group of people you are a part of. I suspect it comes from the sport of baseball.

Examples:

"The Atlanta Braves lost a chance to tie the game in the 6th inning because the outfielder tripped and dropped the ball instead of throwing it to 2nd base." (here "dropping the ball" is literal and shows how it may have had its origin).

"We all have to work late because Tim dropped the ball and forgot to bring his tools."

"The Democrats failed to achieve an early filibuster-proof majority in the Senate in 2008 because the party in Massachusetts dropped the ball by fielding a very weak candidate to fill the seat of the late Ted Kennedy. This allowed a Republican to win instead."

This idiom is especially prevalent in the business place. If someone drops the ball too many times they tend to get fired.