balls-out

English

Etymology

Usually said to be from the maximum-speed state of a ball governor, whose balls are swung out to the near-horizontal position. Neither balls-out nor balls to the wall is connected with the vulgar sense of balls (“testicles”) except connotationally via folk etymology. (In that vein of apparent vulgar innuendo, see also rock out with one's cock out.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Adjective

balls-out (not comparable)

1. (US, idiomatic, slang) Extreme; extremely great.
   • 1976, CBer's Handy Atlas/Dictionary, page 9, column 2:

     He's making a balls-out run for Motor City by nightfall.

   • 2025 April 26, Jo Ellison, “Make America Pregnant Again”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 20:

     When you're popping babies via multiple partners, the “harem drama” is intense. As one strand of the pronatalist orthodoxy, [Elon] Musk's is very much a balls-out approach.

Adverb

balls-out (not comparable)

1. Descriptive of the use of a centrifugal governor at maximum speed, corresponding to full throttle.
2. (US, idiomatic, slang) With great abandon.
3. (US, idiomatic, slang) At the fastest possible speed.

See also

• balls to the wall, a synonymous term whose proposed etymologic connection to this one has been challenged

Anagrams

• out balls