| football | |
| 1. n. (general) A sport played on foot in which teams attempt to get a ball into a goal or zone defended by the other team. | |
| Roman and medieval football matches were more violent than any modern type of football. | |
| 2. n. Association football: a game in which two teams each contend to get a round ball into the other team's goal primarily by kicking the ball. Known as soccer in Canada, the United States, A | |
| Each team scored three goals when they played football. | |
| 3. n. (US) American football: a game played on a field of 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide in which two teams of 11 players attempt to get an ovoid ball to the end of each other's territory. | |
| Each team scored two touchdowns when they played football. | |
| 4. n. (Canada) Canadian football: a game played on a played on a field of 110 yards long and 65 yards wide in which two teams of 12 players attempt to get an ovoid ball to the end of each other's territory. | |
| They played football in the snow. | |
| 5. n. (Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory) Australian rules football. | |
| 6. n. (Ireland) Gaelic football: a field game played with similar rules to hurling, but using hands and feet rather than a stick, and a ball, similar to, yet smaller than a soccer ball. | |
| 7. n. (Australia, New South Wales, Queensland) rugby league. | |
| 8. n. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand) rugby union. | |
| 9. n. The ball used in any game called "football". | |
| The player kicked the football. | |
| 10. n. Practice of these particular games, or techniques used in them. | |
| 11. n. (figuratively) An item of discussion, particularly in a back-and-forth manner | |
| That budget item became a political football. | |
| 12. n. (slang) The leather briefcase containing classified nuclear war plans, which is always near the US President. | |
