screwball
1 of 2noun
screw·ball ˈskrü-ˌbȯl 
1
: a baseball pitch that spins and breaks in the opposite direction to a curve
2
: a whimsical, eccentric, or crazy person : zany
screwball
2 of 2adjective
: crazily eccentric or whimsical : zany
Synonyms
Noun
- character
- codger
- crack
- crackbrain
- crackpot
- crank
- eccentric
- flake
- fruitcake
- head case
- kook
- nut
- nutcase
- nutter [British slang]
- oddball
- oddity
- original
- quiz
- weirdo
- zany
Adjective
- absurd
- asinine
- balmy
- brainless
- bubbleheaded
- cockeyed
- crackpot
- crazy
- cuckoo
- daffy
- daft
- dippy
- dotty
- fatuous
- featherheaded
- fool
- foolish
- half-baked
- half-witted
- harebrained
- inept
- insane
- jerky
- kooky
- kookie
- loony
- looney
- lunatic
- lunkheaded
- mad
- nonsensical
- nutty
- preposterous
- sappy
- senseless
- silly
- simpleminded
- stupid
- tomfool
- unwise
- wacky
- whacky
- weak-minded
- witless
- zany
See all Synonyms & Antonyms 
Example Sentences
Noun She really did that? What a screwball. a screwball who liked to save lint and bits of string Adjective she's always off on some screwball plan
Recent Examples on the Web
Lara Gabrielle, WSJ, 9 Sep. 2022 In this screwball comedy with a pro-union twist, Charles Coburn plays John P. Merrick, a fictional New York City department store owner. Peter Dreier, The Conversation, 22 Aug. 2022 Seehorn and Odenkirk had great chemistry, less romcom than screwball. Darren Franich, EW.com, 16 Aug. 2022 Wilder made that formula his own in his great string of black comedies and screwball tragedies. Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2022 The banter, quips, and quick wits volleying back and forth between the leads in Howard Hawks's 1940 film no doubt set this classic atop the primo fast-talking, screwball comedies akin to the '30s and '40s. Deanna Janes, Harper's BAZAAR, 15 July 2022 As senior Liv Mendonca warmed up 45 minutes before the first pitch of the MIAA Division 1 softball final, Taunton coach Carrie Consalvi asked how her screwball was feeling. Cam Kerry, BostonGlobe.com, 17 June 2022 By some wacky screwball chance, Bran ends up writing screenplays for short films, and in this way Avalon functions as a Kunstlerroman, meaning a novel not so much about coming of age, but about coming into one’s own as an artist. Brandon Taylor, The Atlantic, 1 July 2022 Another of his finds, Bobby Castillo, a converted third baseman known as Babo, taught Valenzuela how to throw a screwball. Richard Sandomir, BostonGlobe.com, 9 July 2022 Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 21 May 2020 These two also know how to banter like they’ve been thrown into a Golden Age screwball comedy. Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 17 May 2020 The whole evening was unraveling along with the ballerina’s costume, replaced by a screwball comedy. Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2020 But for the first time in a while, 60 seemingly screwball words at the bottom of Alabama’s game contracts are more than a formality. Michael Casagrande | Mcasagrande@al.com, al, 6 May 2020 And then there’s his inborn ear for every shade of human babble, here a transcendent four-hander, there a screwball travelogue, everywhere argot and idiolect and argument. New York Times, 23 Apr. 2020 An anxious, screwball chemistry flickers between the leads; the train backdrop recalls classics like North by Northwest and the original Murder on the Orient Express. Judy Berman, Time, 8 Apr. 2020 But, when the coronavirus outbreak sent large swaths of the U.S. into self-quarantine last month, Jordan began recording slapdash, screwball videos from a spartan Airbnb in his home town, and noticed his following balloon. Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2020 The screwball shifts in tone somehow cohere into a biting parable of haves and have-nots. The Economist, 13 Feb. 2020 See More
Noun
Gable was one of the decade’s biggest stars, and Lombard’s screwball comedy is credited with influencing the likes of Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. Lara Gabrielle, WSJ, 9 Sep. 2022 In this screwball comedy with a pro-union twist, Charles Coburn plays John P. Merrick, a fictional New York City department store owner. Peter Dreier, The Conversation, 22 Aug. 2022 Seehorn and Odenkirk had great chemistry, less romcom than screwball. Darren Franich, EW.com, 16 Aug. 2022 Wilder made that formula his own in his great string of black comedies and screwball tragedies. Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2022 The banter, quips, and quick wits volleying back and forth between the leads in Howard Hawks's 1940 film no doubt set this classic atop the primo fast-talking, screwball comedies akin to the '30s and '40s. Deanna Janes, Harper's BAZAAR, 15 July 2022 As senior Liv Mendonca warmed up 45 minutes before the first pitch of the MIAA Division 1 softball final, Taunton coach Carrie Consalvi asked how her screwball was feeling. Cam Kerry, BostonGlobe.com, 17 June 2022 By some wacky screwball chance, Bran ends up writing screenplays for short films, and in this way Avalon functions as a Kunstlerroman, meaning a novel not so much about coming of age, but about coming into one’s own as an artist. Brandon Taylor, The Atlantic, 1 July 2022 Another of his finds, Bobby Castillo, a converted third baseman known as Babo, taught Valenzuela how to throw a screwball. Richard Sandomir, BostonGlobe.com, 9 July 2022 Adjective
Little wonder the screwball comedy is practically a lost genre. Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 21 May 2020 These two also know how to banter like they’ve been thrown into a Golden Age screwball comedy. Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 17 May 2020 The whole evening was unraveling along with the ballerina’s costume, replaced by a screwball comedy. Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2020 But for the first time in a while, 60 seemingly screwball words at the bottom of Alabama’s game contracts are more than a formality. Michael Casagrande | Mcasagrande@al.com, al, 6 May 2020 And then there’s his inborn ear for every shade of human babble, here a transcendent four-hander, there a screwball travelogue, everywhere argot and idiolect and argument. New York Times, 23 Apr. 2020 An anxious, screwball chemistry flickers between the leads; the train backdrop recalls classics like North by Northwest and the original Murder on the Orient Express. Judy Berman, Time, 8 Apr. 2020 But, when the coronavirus outbreak sent large swaths of the U.S. into self-quarantine last month, Jordan began recording slapdash, screwball videos from a spartan Airbnb in his home town, and noticed his following balloon. Rachel Syme, The New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2020 The screwball shifts in tone somehow cohere into a biting parable of haves and have-nots. The Economist, 13 Feb. 2020 See More Word History
First Known Use
Noun
1908, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Adjective
circa 1936, in the meaning defined above
screwballs
noun
as in eccentrics
a person of odd or whimsical habits a screwball who liked to save lint and bits of string Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- eccentrics
- nuts
- oddballs
- crackpots
- kooks
- zanies
- cranks
- weirdos
- mavericks
- characters
- nutcases
- fruitcakes
- nutters
- codgers
- originals
- freaks
- flakes
- bohemians
- rarities
- odd ducks
- oddities
- cracks
- quizzes
- nonconformists
- head cases
- crackbrains
- geezers
- coots
- pieces of work
- quixotes
- curios
- fantasts
- fantasticoes
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- sheep
- followers
- conformists
- conformers
- separation anxiety
- separation disk
- separation layer
- separation negative
- separation of church and state
- separation of variables
- separation point
- separationist
- separationists
- separations
- separatism
- separatisms
- separatist
- pilgarlic
- pilgarlicks
- pilgarlics
- pilgrim
- pilgrim bottle
- pilgrim brown
- Pilgrim Father
- Pilgrim Psalm
- pilgrim scallop
- pilgrim sign
- pilgrim's scallop shell
- pilgrim's shell