leave the ball in someone's court
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To give someone the responsibility to act or make a decision
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
giao trách nhiệm cho ai đó để hành động hoặc quyết định
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a ball being left on a tennis court
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The manager left the ball in the team's court to decide the project timeline
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “leave the ball in someone's court” mean?
To give someone the responsibility to act or make a decision Literally: a ball being left on a tennis court
Is “leave the ball in someone's court” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.