crystal ball

crystal ball

1. A glass or crystal orb used by fortune-tellers and mystics in popular culture to see into the future. The soothsayer, peering into her crystal ball, foretold that I would come to possess a great fortune by the year's end.
2. By extension, any figurative means of predicting future events. She must have some kind of crystal ball for the economy, because every business decision she's made has been timed perfectly to market fluctuations. Well, Mike, what does your crystal ball say about the team's chances in the playoffs?
See also: ball, crystal
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

crystal ball

A means of predicting the future, as in So what does your crystal ball say about the coming election? The term is a figurative use of the crystal or glass ball used by fortune-tellers. [c. 1900]
See also: ball, crystal
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

a crystal ball

COMMON You talk about a crystal ball when you are saying how difficult it is to predict the future. What you really need to help you select your new car is a crystal ball to tell you how much it will be worth in three or four years' time. Note: You can call the activity of predicting the future crystal ball gazing. Can I ask you now to do a bit of crystal ball gazing? How high do you think the price of oil could go? Note: A crystal ball is a glass ball used by some traditional fortune-tellers (= people who predict what will happen to you in the future). They say that they can see visions of future events within the ball.
See also: ball, crystal
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • a crystal ball
  • a crystal set
  • crystal set
  • crystal ball, look into one's
  • be as clear as crystal
  • clear as crystal
  • crystal
  • (as) clear as crystal
  • shine up to (one)
References in periodicals archive
Will our crystal ball go into overdrive and betray some cricks and cracks?
The Delhi Eye A respected rival jeweller, William Harold Gordon, accused Mr Peters of conning the public through the use of a hidden magic lantern, but Peters swore there was no trickery, and allowed Mr Gordon to examine the crystal ball. Surrounded by a crushing crowd inside the shop, Mr Gordon inspected the weighty globe, and recoiled in horror, for he saw a woman's face appear - his wife's face.
CRYSTAL BALL: Didier Drogba will be a big loss when he goes to the African Nations Cup but they can absorb it, they have enough people in the squad to go and get results.
ALTHOUGH there is still more than 10 weeks left of 2009, estate agents are getting ready to predict what will happen to housing next year - and Knight Frank, one of the first of the big national agencies to look into the crystal ball, sees "no Armageddon" despite a weakening of the market.
Summary: A crystal ball ornament caused a flat fire after magnifying the sun's rays and making a television explode.
THE CRYSTAL ball is dim, but spirits and signs indicate further victories for freedom of speech, even when money changes hands and consumer protection is allegedly at stake.
A Frito-Lay ad for Doritos featuring an office worker using a crystal ball to "free Doritos" was the most popular Super Bowl ad in USA Today's annual "Ad Meter" competition, according to a release.
The football legend and his wife Lady Elsie joined nearly 250 guests and North East girl band Bad Lashes at the Crystal Ball, the New Year's Eve fundraiser in aid of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation at the new Radisson SAS Hotel.
If only Brian Meehan had had a crystal ball, he might not have sent the 78-rated four-year-old sprinter Star Crowned to the sales last July.
Host importantly, Howard is pressed to peer into his crystal ball to predict when the housing market will rebound.
This edition has new cases in every chapter, an interactive graphical tool for understanding changes in linear programming model coefficients, a new version of Crystal Ball and coverage of its Distribution Gallery Tool and other tools and diagrams, expanded discussion of the use of array formulas in project management models, and new and revised problems.
A fascinating email that has been doing the rounds alerts the recipient to a crystal ball known as "The Flash Mind Reader" (Naughton, 2006).
To quote fellow New Jerseyan, Yogi Berra 'It's hard to make a prediction, especially if it's about the future,' and this year, with so many uncertainties surrounding the national economy and the state's office market, the crystal ball seems a bit cloudy.
At the start of another year of adventures in international architecture, it seems appropriate to indulge in some modest crystal ball gazing of our own, though the futures predicted here are more certain to come to pass.
A crystal ball sprouts spiraling, labyrinthine passages.