snowball
Syllables: snow·ballUK/ˈsnəʊbɔːl//ˈsnoʊbɔl/
snowball noun: 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.
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.
- 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...2005, Eldad Ben-Yosef, The Evolution of the US Airline Industry
- 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
snowball (not comparable)
- 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.1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Another London Life”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 175
Verb
snowball (third-person singular simple present snowballs, present participle snowballing, simple past and past participle 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.
- 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...2023 January 11, Philip Haigh, “Comment: The worst chaos for 40 years”, in RAIL, number 974, page 4
- 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.
Proper noun capitalized: Snowball
Snowball (plural Snowballs)
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
- A locality in the Queanbeyan-Palerang council area, south eastern New South Wales, Australia.
snowball meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
snowball in Hindi
- ball of snow
- स्नोबॉल snobŏl, बर्फ़ का गोला barf kā golā
snowball in Tamil
- பனித்திறள், பெரிதாகல்
snowball in Marathi
- स्नोबॉल, स्नोबॉलला
snowball in Urdu
- ball of snow
- سْنوبال snobāl, بَرْف کا گولا barf kā golā
More languagesFewer languages
- snowball in Bengali
- তুষারগোলক tuśargōlok
- snowball in Telugu
- స్నోబాల్
- snowball in Malayalam
- സ്നോബോൾ
- snowball in Kannada
- ಸ್ನೋಬಾಲ್, ಸ್ನೋಬೋಲ್
- snowball in Punjabi
- ਬਰਫ ਦਾ ਗੋਲਾ, ਸਨੋਬਾਲ
- snowball in Gujarati
- સ્નોબોલ, સ્નોબૉલ
- snowball in Odia
- ସ୍ନୋବଲ୍, ସ୍ନୋବାଲ୍
- snowball in Nepali
- स्नोबल, स्नोबाल, स्नोबोल
- snowball in Arabic
- كُرَةُ الثَّلْج kuratu ṯ-ṯalj
- snowball in Indonesian
- bola salju
- snowball in Thai
- ก้อนหิมะ, ก้อนหิมะปั้น
- snowball in Vietnamese
- hòn tuyết
Examples of snowball in a sentence
- She scooped up a mittenful of snow and began to mould it into a snowball.
- What started as a quick script completely custom snowballed into a standalone application.
- Astronomers have compared comets to dirty snowballs.
Forms of snowball
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | snowballs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | snowballs |
| present participle | snowballing |
| past participle | snowballed |
| past | snowballed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Snowballs |
Origin of snowball
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.
From snow + ball, probably a nickname for someone who had a patch of white hair or a pale bald patch, amid dark hair.
Words formed from snowball
- cast snowballs
- Chinese snowball
- coconut snowball
- custom snowball
- dirty snowball
- Mexican snowball
- New York snowball
- snowball bush
- snowball cactus
- Snowball Earth
- snowball effect
- snowballer
- snowball fight
- snowball hammer
- snowball in hell
- snowball marches
- snowball opacity
- snowball prime
- snowball sample
- snowball sampling
- snowball's chance
- snowball's chance in an oven
- snowball's chance in hell
- snowball tree
- snowball’s chance in hell
- snowballing
Phrases with snowball
Questions about snowball
- What does snowball mean?
- Snowball means 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.
- What is snowball in Hindi?
- Snowball in Hindi is स्नोबॉल (snobŏl), बर्फ़ का गोला (barf kā golā). See Snowball meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is snowball?
- Snowball can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce snowball?
- Snowball is pronounced /ˈsnəʊbɔːl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of snowball?
- The plural of snowball is snowballs.
Words near snowball in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snowball (page history and authors); Snowball (page history and authors); snowball (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); snowball (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowball (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowball (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowball (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowball (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowball (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowball (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowball (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-snowball.ogg.
Cite this entry: “snowball.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snowball. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.