SNOWBALL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Snowball

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/snˈoʊbˌɔl/ Listen

noun

Snowball n.

A round mass of snow pressed or roller together, or anything resembling such a mass.

(Bot.) The Guelder-rose.

(Bot.) A shrub of the genus Viburnum, having large clusters of white flowers.

Snowball bush or Snowball tree (Bot.), the Guelder-rose.

a snowball's chance in hell, (Colloq.) no chance; an infinitesimal chance.

verb

Snowball v. t. (past & past part. snowballed; pres. part. snowballing) To pelt with snowballs; to throw snowballs at.

Snowball v. i.

To throw snowballs.

To increase in magnitude at an accelerating rate, achieving large proportions; by analogy with a snowball rolling down a steep hill, causing a large snow slide.

See images of 'Snowball'

Etymology of 'Snowball'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Snowball" Quotes from Famous Books

... interrupted Mrs. Cameron. "Do not leave out the element of time. Remember that the farther away we get from the beginning of learning, the greater accumulation there is for us to master. Like a mammoth snowball, each century has rolled up its treasure until such a mass has come down to us that it is practically impossible for us to possess ourselves of it. Sometimes when I think of all there is to ...

— Paul and the Printing Press • Sara Ware Bassett

... too altruistic ever to come in our lifetime; but, do you know, I am awfully optimistic about it. I really believe it will come so quickly, after it once gets a good start, that it will astound us. The proverbial snowball coming down the mountain side will be as nothing to it. Everyone will want to join the procession at once. No one will want to be left out for the finger of Scorn to accuse. And, strangely enough, I believe it will ...

— Philip Dru: Administrator • Edward Mandell House

... said, turning to the camp commander, "a crook ain't got any more chance than a snowball in—you know—when he tries to pull the wool over my eyes. I've been ketchin' thieves and bandits an' the Lord knows what-all for forty years er more, an' so forth. I want to thank you, sir, an' your brave soldier boys—an' the United States ...

— Anderson Crow, Detective • George Barr McCutcheon

... a hum of voices, a brilliant throng of exquisitely gowned, bejeweled women and well-groomed men, in fact a house such as Wood's leading lady had never before confronted! A chance for triumph or for disaster—and triumph it was! Like a rolling snowball, it grew as the play advanced. Again and again Clara Morris took a curtain call with the other actresses. Finally the stage manager said to Mr. Daly, "They want her," and Mr. Daly answered, sharply: "I know what they want, and I know what I ...

— Ten American Girls From History • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... mittened and shawled that the frost scarcely got a chance at the tip of my nose. I never skated or coasted or built snow houses. If I had any experience of snowballs, it was with those thrown at me by the Gentile boys. The way I dodge a snowball to this day makes me certain that I learned the act in my fearful childhood days, when I learned so many cowardly tricks of bending to a blow. I know that I was proud of myself when, not many years ago, I found I was not afraid to stand up and catch a flying baseball; but the fear ...

— The Promised Land • Mary Antin

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