Googly

English

Etymology

The etymology is uncertain but it is linked to Bernard Bosanquet, who developed such a delivery. It may be important that the word was first reported during one of his New Zealand matches.

Noun

Googly (plural googlies)

1. (cricket) A ball, bowled by a leg break bowler, that spins from off to leg (to a right-handed batsman), unlike a normal leg-break delivery.
   • 1904, P. F. Warner, How We Recovered the Ashes, quoted in Sidney J. Baker, The Australian Language, second edition, 1966, chapter XI, section 4, page 248:

     Bosanquet can bowl as badly as anyone in the world; but when he gets a length, those slow googlies, as the Australian players call them, are apt to paralyse the greatest players.

Synonyms

• bosie or bosey
• wrong ’un

Derived terms

• bowl a googly

See also

• chinaman
• cutter
• doosra
• full toss
• inswing
• leg break
• off-break
• outswing
• screwball grip
• seamer
• yorker

Adjective

Googly (comparative googlier, superlative googliest)

1. Of the eyes, bulging.

See also

• googly-eyed
• googly eyes
• google
• googol