cannonball

English

A stack of cannonballs

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Noun

cannonball (plural cannonballs)

1. (military, artillery)
   1. A spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon; a solid shot; a solid round shot; a ball.
   2. An explosive-filled hollow iron sphere fused through a hole and intended to explode at a calculated distance rather than explode on impact.
2. The result of running and jumping in a flexed position into a swimming pool to create a large splash, mimicking the flight and shape of a cannonball.

   The cannonball could be called the S.U.V. of the pool — oversized, brash, hormonally hardwired.

   • The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, p.40

   I would call it a water-entry stunt, not a dive.

   • The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, p.40, quoting "Coach O'Brien"

3. (slang, figuratively) Something that moves fast.

   Meetings of the model train club always begin with the song "Wabash Cannonball".

4. (tennis) a served ball that travels with great speed and describes little or no arc in flight.

Translations

spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon

• Bulgarian: гюле (bg) n (gjule)
• Chinese: 炮彈, 炮弹
• Danish: kanonkugle (da) c
• Dutch: kanonskogel (nl) m, bommetje (nl) n
• French: boulet de canon m
• German: Kanonenkugel (de) f

• Hungarian: ágyúgolyó (hu)
• Jèrriais: balle dé canon f, boulet dé canon m
• Korean: 포탄
• Polish: kula armatnia (pl) f
• Russian: пушечное ядро n (pushechnoe yadro)

See also

• jack-knife
• bellyflop

Verb

cannonball (third-person singular simple present cannonballs, present participle cannonballing, simple past and past participle cannonballed)

1. To jump/dive into water doing a cannonball landing.

   He cannonballed into the pool, drenching us all.