snowball

See also: Snowball

English

A pyramid of snowballs to be used in a snowball fight.

A giant snowball.

Etymology

From Middle English snoweball, snoweballe, snaweballe, snayballe, equivalent to snow +‎ ball. Cognate with Scots snawbaw, German Schneeball, Luxembourgish Schnéiball, Dutch sneeuwbal, Afrikaans sneeubal, Limburgish snieëbal, West Frisian sniebal, Saterland Frisian Sneebaal, Sneebal, Swedish snöboll, Elfdalian sniųoboll, Danish snebold, Norwegian Bokmål snøball, Norwegian Nynorsk snøball and Icelandic snjóbolti.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsnəʊbɔːl/
(General American) enPR: snōʹbôl, IPA^(key): /ˈsnoʊbɔl/
(cot–caught merger, Canada) enPR: snōʹbôl, IPA^(key): /ˈsnoʊbɑl/
Audio (US) (file)
Hyphenation: snow‧ball

Noun

snowball (plural snowballs)

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.
A cocktail made from lemonade and advocaat.
(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...
A sex act involving passing ejaculated semen from one person's mouth to another's.
(US) A type of ice dessert.
A type of cake. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

a snowball’s chance, a snowball’s chance in an oven, a snowball’s chance in hell
cast snowballs
Chinese snowball
coconut 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: كُرَة اَلثَّلْج‎ f (kurat aṯ-ṯalj)
Armenian: ձնագնդիկ (hy) (jnagndik)
Basque: elur-bola
Bulgarian: снежна топка f (snežna topka)
Catalan: bola de neu f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 雪球 (zh) (xuěqiú)
Czech: sněhová koule f
Danish: snebold (da) c
Dutch: sneeuwbal (nl) m
Esperanto: neĝobulo
Estonian: please add this translation if you can
Faroese: kavablak n (made in the hand), kavabóltur m (made by rolling a snowball around)
Finnish: lumipallo (fi)
French: boule de neige (fr) f, balle de neige f (Quebec)
Galician: bóla de neve (gl) m
Georgian: თოვლის გუნდა (tovlis gunda), გუნდა (gunda)
German: Schneeball (de) m
Greek: χιονόμπαλα (el) f (chionómpala)
Hebrew: כדור שלג‎ (he) m (kadúr shéleg)
Hungarian: hógolyó (hu)
Icelandic: snjóbolti m
Ido: nivobulo (io)
Italian: palla di neve f
Japanese: 雪玉 (ゆきだま, yukidama), 雪つぶて (ゆきつぶて, yukitsubute), 雪だるま (ja) (ゆきだるま, yukidaruma)
Korean: 눈덩이 (nundeong'i)
Latgalian: snīga pyks
Latvian: sniega pika
Lithuanian: sniego gniūžtė f
Luxembourgish: Schnéiball m, Schnéiklatz (lb) f
Norman: boule dé né f
Norwegian:
Bokmål: snøball (no) m
Nynorsk: snøball m
Persian: گلوله برف‎ (golūle-ye barf)
Polish: śnieżka (pl) f, kulka śnieżna f, kulka śniegowa f
Portuguese: bola de neve f
Romanian: bulgăre de zăpadă m
Russian: снежо́к (ru) m (snežók), сне́жный ком m (snéžnyj kom) (larger)
Serbo-Croatian: gruda (sh) f
Cyrillic: грудва f
Roman: grudva (sh) f
Spanish: bola de nieve f
Swedish: snöboll (sv) c
Turkish: kar topu (tr)
Ukrainian: сні́жка f (snížka)
Westrobothnian: snjömyl m

cocktail

Finnish: lumipallo (fi)
Japanese: スノーボール (sunōbōru)
Russian: снежо́к (ru) m (snežók)
Ukrainian: сні́жка f (snížka)

Adjective

snowball (not comparable)

Of something with rapid growth, often uncontrolled. Compare snowball effect.
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, page 175:
  Scandal, with her, did not lose any of its usual snowball propensities, of gathering as it went.

Verb

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

(intransitive) To rapidly grow out of proportion or control.
The high unemployment rates quickly snowballed into a major budget problem for the government.
- 2023 January 11, Philip Haigh, “Comment: The worst chaos for 40 years”, in RAIL, number 974, page 4:
  There's a further knock-on effect from cancelling trains. It's not unusual for train crew diagrams to include a period 'on the cushions', travelling as a passenger to get staff from one train to the next. Cancel this train and it's likely the crew won't reach their next train, so this too is cancelled. Disruption snowballs and diagrams become harder to deliver.
(intransitive) To play at throwing snowballs.
(transitive) To pelt with snowballs; to throw snowballs at.
(intransitive, slang) To receive ejaculated semen in one's mouth, and to then pass it back and forth between one’s mouth and another person’s mouth.

Derived terms

snowballing

Translations

rapidly grow out of proportion or control

Finnish: paisua (fi)
Japanese: 雪だるま式に増える (yukidarumashiki ni fueru)

play at throwing snowballs

Finnish: olla lumisotasilla, leikkiä lumisotaa
Japanese: 雪合戦をする (yukigassen o suru)
Swedish: ha snöbollskrig
Turkmen: gar zyňyşmak

sexual slang: pass ejaculate from mouth to mouth