TENNIS & COURT SPORTS :

IDIOM: to draw the line tennis or othe ball games which use a court needing lines

MEANING 1: a line drawn which marks the end of a court of play. SENTENCE 1: Please draw the line in the sand for the beach ball game.

MEANING 2: to define a limit in anything
SENTENCE 2: I am going to draw the line about working more than forty hours a week.

DERIVATION: A form of tennis has been played by Englishmen at least since the time of Henry the Eighth of England in the sixteenth century. It probably came to court from France. In the early days lines were drawn to establish the boundaries of the court. By as early as the middle of the eighteenth century the idiom, "to draw a line" was used to mean establishing a limit for something. Also, this may have been derived from the lines drawn for the space between opposition parties in Parliament, so as to put an end to injuries from sword fights.

IDIOM: The ball's in your court. It's in your court. tennis or other court sports such as handball

MEANING 1: It's your turn to hit the ball.
SENTENCE 1: Where's the ball? It's in your court.

MEANING 2: It's the other persons decision or turn to act.
SENTENCE 2: We can't do anymore on this project. It's in the boss' court now.

The court sports include such competitive sports as tennis, handball, squash, badminton and paddle ball, as well as more casual adaptations of the court and ball concept for a game.

"Oh, it's just a lob into my court, Bel, " the Archbishop said, as Ms. Meyer awaited his next letter. His tone was even; the smile was back. "Very Vatican of him. Wants to know what my case is without indicating his own. So I just lobbed it back."
"Profiles: The Education of an Archbishop", The New Yorker, July 15, 1991