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catch no ball

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Calque of Hokkien 掠無球 / 掠无球 (lia̍h bô kiû, to not understand, literally catch no ball).

Pronunciation

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Phrase

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catch no ball

  1. (Singapore, Malaysia, colloquial) To fail to understand something; be unable to comprehend what others are saying.
    • 1992 March 19, soc.culture.asean[1] (Usenet):
      Being someone who doesn't understand Hokkien, I catch no ball as to what you say :-).
    • 1999 April 29, soc.culture.malaysia[2] (Usenet):
      Ah! I see the problem. Fearless is only semi-literate. In which case, I can understand why he catch no ball. I guess we must ALL show patience to the slow-witted.
    • 2000, Chong Yen Chung, Clarence Plays the Numbers: A Novel, page 83:
      "Infini... what? Sorry, I catch no ball. Again, please."
      "Infinitessimal - small, small winnings, Chin," said Clarence...
    • 2005 March 23, soc.culture.malaysia[3] (Usenet):
      "The sense of meaning halal should debated on either symbolic reminder of hygiene also define the level of hygiene to the level of a stomach ache or death that is what make sense!"
      Huh? What kind of English is this? Catch no ball....LOL.
    • 2010 December 15, “The 'catch no ball but will keep trying’ award Inception”, in TODAY[4]:
      THE ‘CATCH NO BALL BUT WILL KEEP TRYING’ AWARD INCEPTION Only the incomparable Christopher Nolan, after reviving the superhero genre, could have had the cojones to convince a tightfisted big movie studio to greenlight a movie as ridiculously convoluted and richly layered as this.
    • 2013 August 14, soc.culture.china[5] (Usenet):
      Catch no ball of what you're talking and saying in your content. Talking and saying, and writing are different ways of expressions. They are not the same.