meatball n.
1. (US) a stupid person; thus a potential victim [fig. ext. + ref. to meathead n.].
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Wash. Times (DC) 30 Apr. n.p.: Flapper’s Dict. [...] Meatball: Dumb but happy. | |
| Power-House 12: ‘Look who’s talkin’ now. The big meatball,’ Ray sneered. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 239: He wasn’t such a meatball that he couldn’t find a way to get around Vince’s reluctance to declare a dividend. | |
| Always Leave ’Em Dying 130: This was L.A., the Land of the Abnormal. Nobody even tries to deny it any more: L.A. is the magnet for meatballs. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | (con. 1940s) Dark Sea Running 214: I’m not the meatball you think. | |
| Q&A 91: John, you’re a meatball. | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 372: If you weren’t worried after those two meatballs came to see you, there’d have to be something wrong with you. | |
| (con. 1949) Big Blowdown (1999) 216: Which is what I’ll be talkin’ about [...] to all those meatballs on my beat. | |
| Angel of Montague Street (2004) 246: He tossed the gun he’d taken away from the meatball in his room into the Dumpster. | |
| ‘Legendary [...] Ralphie O’Malley’ in Dirty Words [ebook] Two meatballs for hire. | |
| California Bear 325: ‘[Y]ou stop with that kid stuff or I’m going to start calling you Meatball’. |
2. (US) a second-rate boxer.
| ‘Klump a la Carte’ Popular Det. July 🌐 Eddie owned a fifty-and-hundred-buck club meatball named ‘Kayo’ Dilley. |
3. (US) an Italian [the stereotyped partiality of Italians for the dish].
| et al. DAUL 137/2: Meat-ball. 1. (Chiefly N. Y. State prisons; Ital.-Amer.) [...] (applied derisively) a Negro. 2. (Same area; adopted by Irish-Amer. convicts) An Italian. | |
| Cannibals 357: Didn’t I tell you to stay with that meatball and get him to work? | |
| Maledicta VII 23: On top of all this spaghetti is a meatball, an Italian. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 12: The time-honored tradition of disparaging other nationalities, including the [...] Italians (Eyetalians, macaronis, meatballs). | |
| Split Decision [ebook] I don’t like Mr Cardone [...] Treats me like a child, that meatball. |
4. an African-American.
 | see sense 3. |
5. (US) as ext. of sense 1 above, a prostitute’s customer.
| Sisters of the Night 5: Clerks, bellhops and elevator operators were recruited to steer the customers – the ‘Johns’ or ‘meatballs’ – to the selected suites. |
6. (US black) a petty criminal; a thug.
| S.R.O. (1998) 28: ‘Assorted pimps, junkies and meatballs [...] standing around and waiting and watching to see what they can cut out of the action’ [ibid.] 396: Georgie had to hire three meatballs to work Red over and break his leg. |
7. (US Und.) a minor or false criminal charge [backform. f. meatball adj.].
| Crime Partners 103: You guys picked me up on a meatball. I ain’t robbed nobody, so you ain’t got no case on me [HDAS]. |