grand slam

noun

1

baseball : a home run hit with the bases loaded

… the Dodgers' Eric Karros has a shot to become the first player in history to get 200 career home runs without a grand slam.

—Tim Kurkjian

2

a usually Grand Slam

(1)

: the winning of all four of the most significant championships in a particular sport in the same year

—used especially in tennis and golf

… with … Nadal spoiling Federer's bid for the Grand Slam by beating him on the clay at the French Open.

—Sean Gregory

"And so to St. Andrews to begin the quest for the Grand Slam," he [Bobby Jones] wrote.

—Dave Anderson

also : the winning of all four such championships during the course of one's career

Woods … could become the youngest player to win the career Grand Slam, at age 24.

—Clifton Brown

(2)

: one of the championships that comprise a Grand Slam : major entry 2 sense 6

"Last year she was a little hungrier," says Davenport's coach, Robert Van't Hof. "She hadn't won a Grand Slam yet."

—Diane K. Shah

—often used before another noun

a Grand Slam event/tournament

Graf was 17 when she won the first of her 21 Grand Slam titles here in 1987 …

—Robin Finn

b

: a clean sweep or total success

3

: the winning of all the tricks in one hand of a card game (such as bridge)

Once, looking over Grace's shoulder, I saw her make a grand slam in clubs when the highest trump card in her hand was the nine.

—William Maxwell

Examples of grand slam in a Sentence

He made a grand slam.

Recent Examples on the Web

After the next three hitters reached base, Giancarlo Stanton sent them all home with a walk-off grand slam. —Tyler Kepner, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025

Koss, traded to the Giants from the Boston Red Sox last year, also remembers being at home when Posey hit his famous grand slam against the Reds in Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS. —Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2025

Eala, advancing to the semifinals with a 6-2, 7-5 win, has beaten three grand slam champions – Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Świątek – in her dream run in Florida as a wild card. —George Ramsay, CNN Money, 26 Mar. 2025

While plenty of our experts were high on the Dodgers’ chances last season, none of them forecast Freddie Freeman’s walkoff grand slam to win Game 1 of the 2024 World Series exactly five months ago. —Ken Rosenthal, The Athletic, 25 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1800, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Rhymes for grand slam

• abram
• ashram
• begam
• buckram
• doorjamb
• exam
• goddam
• grandam
• priam
• program
• programme
• wolfram

Kids Definition

grand slam

noun

: a home run hit with three runners on base