FULL-COURT PRESS Definition & Meaning

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full-court press

[ fool-kawrt, -kohrt ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Basketball. a tactic of harassing, close-guarding defense in which the team without the ball pressures the opponent man-to-man the entire length of the court in order to disrupt dribbling or passing and force a turnover:
Suddenly behind by eighteen points, they went to a full-court press.
a vigorous attack or offensive.

full-court press

noun

basketball the tactic of harrying the opposing team in all areas of the court, as opposed to the more usual practice of trying to defend one's own basket

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Idioms and Phrases

An all-out effort to exert pressure. For example, She'd learned over the years how to deliver a full-court press of guilt . The term alludes to a basketball tactic in which the defenders put pressure on the opposing team over the entire court, trying to disrupt their dribbling and passing. [Late 1900s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

With the Trojans leading by just a bucket, early in the second quarter, coach Lindsay Gottlieb enacted a full-court press, and USC flew into action, disrupting each and every possession from there.

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Mainers aren’t sure what this full-court press will mean for their state; keeping up with it is hard enough.

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Los Alamitos’ full-court press helped produce 21 turnovers, and the Griffins held on for a 63-60 victory over Mira Costa in the Southern Section Division 1 basketball championship Saturday at Toyota Arena in Ontario.

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Perlmutter even changed his philosophy after seeing Los Alamitos’ full-court press and conditioning program to help his own program.

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But then USC unleashed a full-court press, with Marshall and her uncommon length on the frontline.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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