snowball
English · Thesaurus
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snowball¹
- /ˈsnəʊbɔːl/ UK
- /ˈsnoʊbɔl/ US
- /ˈsnoʊbɑl/ cot caught merger
Where it comes from
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.
noun 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.
- Something that snowballs (grows rapidly out of control). 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.
- A type of ice dessert: a snow cone.
- A small cake, typically cream-filled and covered in chocolate icing and desiccated coconut. It didn't take long to eat a packetful of snowballs — they are simply delicious.
adjective
- Of something with rapid growth, often uncontrolled. Compare snowball effect. Scandal, with her, did not lose any of its usual snowball propensities, of gathering as it went.
verb snowballs · snowballing · snowballed
- To rapidly grow out of proportion or control, from an initially smaller state. The high unemployment rates quickly snowballed into a major budget problem for the government.
- To play at throwing snowballs.
- To pelt with snowballs; to throw snowballs at.
- 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.
Snowball²
Where it comes from
From snow + ball, probably a nickname for someone who had a patch of white hair or a pale bald patch, amid dark hair.
proper noun Snowballs
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
- A locality in the Queanbeyan-Palerang council area, south eastern New South Wales, Australia.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: abronia elliptica, crystal, ball, snowball fight, snowfight, dirty snowball, slushball, sandball, snow roller, snowman, snowmachine, iceball, snow donut, snow machine, snowglobe, snow globe
Translations
Every language
noun ball of snow
| Español | bola de nieve, bola nival, bola nívea |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 눈덩이 nundeong'i, 눈뭉치 nunmungchi, 스노우볼 seunoubol |
| 日本語 | 雪玉 yukidama, 雪つぶて yukitsubute, 雪だるま yukidaruma |
| 中文 | 雪球 xuěqiú |
| हिन्दी | स्नोबॉल snobŏl, बर्फ़ का गोला barf kā golā |
| Português | bola de neve |
| Français | boule de neige, balle de neige |
| Deutsch | Schneeball |
| Italiano | palla di neve |
| Ελληνικά | χιονόμπαλα chionómpala |
| Română | bulgăre de zăpadă |
| Русский | снежо́к snežók, сне́жный ком snéžnyj kom |
| Tiếng Việt | hòn tuyết |
| العربية | كُرَةُ الثَّلْج kuratu ṯ-ṯalj |
| עברית | כַּדּוּר שֶׁלֶג kadúr shéleg |
verb rapidly grow out of proportion or control
| 日本語 | 雪だるま式に増える yukidarumashiki ni fueru |
|---|
verb play at throwing snowballs
| 日本語 | 雪合戦をする yukigassen o suru |
|---|
Talk about this word "snowball." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/snowball. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. snowball. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/snowball "snowball." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/snowball.Cite this
@misc{snowball_2026,
title = {snowball},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/snowball},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
