Link Centre Dictionary

snowball

snow·ball

UK/ˈsnəʊbɔːl/ US/ˈsnoʊbɔl/ uncommon slang us vulgar
noun (4) verb (2)

noun

1.

plant having heads of fragrant white trumpet-shaped flowers; grows in sandy arid regions

Synonyms
2.

persuasion by means of empty slogans

3.
4.

snow pressed into a ball for throwing (playfully)

verb

1.
2.

throw snowballs at

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • cast snowballs
  • Chinese snowball
  • coconut snowball
  • custom snowball
  • dirty snowball
  • Mexican snowball
  • New York snowball
  • snowball bush

Related words

Broader terms

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.