snowball
snowball Lexical Profile
snowball Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A ball of packed snow, especially one made for throwing in play or for building a snowman.
"The children spent the afternoon packing fresh powder into snowballs in the backyard."
A spherical confection or dessert coated in white icing and shredded coconut, or a dish of shaved ice flavored with sweet fruit syrup.
"The bakery sold chocolate cake snowballs rolled in toasted coconut flakes."
A cultivated deciduous shrub (especially Viburnum opulus 'Roseum' of the family Adoxaceae) valued for its large, dense, spherical clusters of sterile white blossoms that resemble balls of snow.
"The old garden path was lined with blooming snowball bushes covered in globes of white flowers."
• verb
To increase rapidly in size, intensity, or importance at an accelerating rate.
"What began as a minor scheduling delay quickly snowballed into a major logistical crisis."
To throw snowballs at someone or something, or to play at throwing snowballs.
"The students playfully snowballed one another on their way home from school."
• Rhymes for snowball
Word Origin & Etymology
Recorded in Middle English around 1400 as a compound of 'snow' (from Old English 'snaw') and 'ball'; its figurative verb sense of increasing rapidly in size or intensity like a rolling ball of snow emerged in the early 20th century.