football

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A game played by two teams of 11 players each on a rectangular, 100-yard-long field with goal lines and goalposts at either end, the object being to gain possession of a ball and advance it in running or passing plays across the opponent's goal line or kick it through the air between the opponent's goalposts.
• noun The inflated oval ball used in this game.
• noun Rugby.
• noun Soccer.
• noun The ball used in Rugby or soccer.
• noun Informal A problem or issue that is discussed among groups or persons without being settled.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A ball consisting originally of an inflated bladder, now of a hollow globe of india-rubber or of heavy canvas saturated with rubber, cased in leather, round or oval in shape, and designed to be driven by the foot in the game called by the same name. See def. 2.
• noun A game played with such a ball by two parties of players on a level plot of ground, at each end of which is a goal through or beyond which the players strive to drive the ball.
• noun Figuratively, an object or a person subjected to hard usage or to many vicissitudes or changes of condition: as, he was the foot-ball of fortune.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun An inflated ball to be kicked in sport, usually made in India rubber, or a bladder incased in Leather.
• noun The game played with a football{1}, by two opposing teams of players moving the ball between goals at opposite ends of a rectangular playing field. Outside the United States football refers to soccer, and in England, also to rugby, but in the United States the shape of the ball and the rules of the game are different.
• noun Brit. Soccer or rugby.
• noun Something which is treated in a rough manner, usually as part of a dispute.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun chiefly UK, uncountable association football: a game in which two teams each contend to get a round ball into the other team's goal primarily by kicking the ball. Known as soccer in the US
• noun US, uncountable American football: a game in which two teams attempt to get an ovoid ball to the end of each other's territory.
• noun Canada, uncountable Canadian football: a game played on a wide field in which two teams attempt to get an ovoid ball to the end of each other's territory.
• noun Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory, uncountable Australian rules football.
• noun Ireland, uncountable Gaelic football: a field game played with similar rules to hurling, but using hands and feet rather than a stick, and a ball, similar to, yet smaller than a soccer ball.
• noun Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, uncountable rugby league.
• noun Australia, Ireland, New Zealand rugby union
• noun countable The ball used in any game called "football".
• noun uncountable Practise of these particular games, or techniques used in them.
• noun figuratively, countable An item of discussion, particularly in a back-and-forth manner
• noun slang, countable The nickname of the leather briefcase containing classified nuclear war plans, which is always near the US President.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun any of various games played with a ball (round or oval) in which two teams try to kick or carry or propel the ball into each other's goal
• noun the inflated oblong ball used in playing American football