IDIOM ►
Meaning 1 ►▼
1) a home run in baseball with the bases loaded (on all bases); 4 runs scored.
2) in tennis: the player wins all four tennis opens: the French, Wimbledon, Australian and the U.S.
3) in the card game, bridge, when a player takes all 13 tricks.
Sentence 1
Rafael Nadal won 14 and lost 6 grand slam tournaments.
Meaning 2 ►▼
A super win
Sentence 2
The Republicans scored a home run in the 1952 election when Eisenhower ran for President. The Republicans won both the Senate and the House.
Derivation
The original meaning may have come from baseball.
IDIOM ►
Meaning 1 ►▼
the last point of the match
Sentence 1
"We had a good time since match point," said Federer.
Meaning 2 ►▼
To debate a decisive point or the end of negotiations
Sentence 2
Business: “We’re down to at match point. It’s almost the end of the game; whoever gets this wins the contract.”
IDIOM ►
Meaning 1 ►▼
It's your turn to hit the ball
Sentence 1
Where's the ball? It's in your court.
Meaning 2 ►▼
It's the other persons decision or turn to act
Sentence 2
We can't do anymore on this project. It's in the boss' court now.
IDIOM ►
Meaning 1 ►▼
a line drawn which marks the end of a court of play
Sentence 1
Please draw the line in the sand for the beach ball game.
Meaning 2 ►▼
to define a limit in anything
Sentence 2
I am going to draw the line about working more than forty hours a week.
Derivation
A form of tennis has been played by Englishmen at least since the time of Henry the Eighth of England in the sixteenth century. It probably came to court from France. In the early days lines were drawn to establish the boundaries of the court. By as early as the middle of the eighteenth century the idiom, "to draw a line" was used to mean establishing a limit for something. Also, this may have been derived from the lines drawn for the space between opposition parties in Parliament, so as to put an end to injuries from sword fights.