snowball

See also Snowball

English

Wikipedia

A pyramid of snowballs usable in snowball fight.

A big snowball.

Etymology

From Middle English snowball, snawball, equivalent to snow +‎ ball.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈsnəʊbɔːl/, X-SAMPA: /"sn@UbO:l/
• (US) enPR: snōʹbôl, IPA: /ˈsnoʊbɔːl/, X-SAMPA: /"snoUbO:l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

snowball (plural snowballs)

1. A ball of snow, usually one made in the hand and thrown for amusement in a snowball fight; also a larger ball of snow made by rolling a snowball around in snow that sticks to it and increases its diameter.
2. A cocktail made from lemonade and advocaat.
3. (figuratively) Something that snowballs (grows rapidly out of control).
   • 2005, Eldad Ben-Yosef, The Evolution of the US Airline Industry

     Representatives of the small airlines that felt betrayed by Brown's policy started a political snowball rolling, resulting in the Airmail Act of 1934...

4. A sex act involving passing ejaculated semen from one person's mouth to another's.

Derived terms

a snowball’s chance, a snowball’s chance in an oven, a snowball’s chance in hell besnowball cast snowballs Chinese snowball New York snowball snowball bush snowball cactus Snowball Earth hypothesis

snowball effect snowball fight snowball hammer snowball marches snowball opacity snowball prime snowball sampling snowball tree

Translations

ball of snow

• Arabic: كرة الثلج (ar) (kúrat al-ṯalj) f
• Armenian: ձնագնդիկ (hy) (jnagndik)
• Basque: elur-bola (eu)
• Catalan: bola de neu (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雪球 (cmn) (xuěqiú)

• Czech: sněhová koule (cs) f
• Danish: snebold (da) c
• Dutch: sneeuwbal (nl) m
• Esperanto: neĝobulo (eo)
• Finnish: lumipallo (fi)
• French: boule de neige (fr) f, balle de neige (fr) f (Quebec)
• Georgian: თოვლის გუნდა (ka) (t‘ovlis gunda), გუნდა (ka) (gunda)
• German: Schneeball (de) m
• Greek: χιονόμπαλα (el) (chionómpala) f
• Hebrew: כדור שלג (he) (kadúr shéleg) m
• Hungarian: hógolyó (hu)

• Italian: palla di neve (it) f
• Japanese: 雪玉 (ja) (ゆきだま, yukidama), 雪つぶて (ja) (ゆきつぶて, yukitsubute), 雪だるま (ja) (ゆきだるま, yukidaruma)
• Jèrriais: boule dé né f
• Korean: 눈덩이 (ko) (nundeongi)
• Luxembourgish: Schnéiball (lb) m, Schnéiklatz (lb) f
• Polish: śnieżka (pl) f, kulka śnieżna (pl) f, kulka śniegowa (pl) f
• Portuguese: bola de neve (pt) f
• Romanian: bulgăre de zăpadă (ro) m
• Russian: снежок (ru) (snežók) m, снежный ком (ru) (snéžnyj kom) m (larger)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: грудва (sh) f

  Roman: grudva (sh) f

• Spanish: bola de nieve (es) f
• Swedish: snöboll (sv) c
• Turkish: kar topu (tr)
• Ukrainian: сніжок (uk) (snižók) m

cocktail

• Finnish: lumipallo (fi)
• Japanese: スノーボール (ja) (sunōbōru)

• Russian: снежок (ru) (snežók) m

Verb

snowball (third-person singular simple present snowballs, present participle snowballing, simple past and past participle snowballed)

1. (intransitive) To rapidly grow out of proportion or control.

   The high unemployment rates quickly snowballed into a major budget problem for the government.

2. (intransitive) To play at throwing snowballs.
3. (transitive) To pelt with snowballs; to throw snowballs at.
4. (intransitive) (sexual slang) To receive a man's ejaculate in one's mouth, and then to pass it back and forth between one's mouth and his.

Derived terms

• snowballing

Translations

rapidly grow out of proportion or control

• Finnish: paisua (fi)

• Japanese: 雪だるま式 (ja)に増える

play at throwing snowballs

• Finnish: olla (fi) lumisotasilla (fi), leikkiä (fi) lumisotaa (fi)
• Japanese: 雪合戦 (ja)をする

• Swedish: ha snöbollskrig (sv)
• Turkmen: gar zyňyşmak (tk)

sexual slang: pass ejaculate from mouth to mouth