jump ball

1. 1.

   (basketball) the way play begins or resumes when possession is disputed; an official tosses the ball up between two players who jump in an effort to tap it to a teammate

   Broaderbeginning

   Narrowertip-off

   basketball

Questions about jump ball

What does jump ball mean?

jump ball means "(basketball) the way play begins or resumes when possession is disputed; an official tosses the ball up between two players who jump in an effort to tap it to a teammate".

Is jump ball a common word?

jump ball is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.