snowball
/ˈsnoʊbɔl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.18 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
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
Something that snowballs (grows rapidly out of control).
adj
Of something with rapid growth, often uncontrolled. Compare snowball effect.
verb
To rapidly grow out of proportion or control, from an initially smaller state.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Representatives of the small airlines that felt betrayed by Brown's policy started a political snowball rolling, resulting in the Airmail Act of 1934..."
- "It didn't take long to eat a packetful of snowballs — they are simply delicious."
- "Scandal, with her, did not lose any of its usual snowball propensities, of gathering as it went."
- "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 cancelled. Disruption snowballs and diagrams become harder to deliver."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: snoweball
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsnoʊbɔl/
- British English: /ˈsnəʊbɔːl/
Usage
- American usage
- Intransitive verb
- Transitive verb
- Slang