Definition of "snowball"

snowball

/ˈsnəʊbɔːl/

noun
plural snowballs
1. 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.
2. A cocktail made from lemonade and advocaat.
3. (figuratively) Something that snowballs (grows rapidly out of control).
  Quotations
  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
4. A sex act involving passing ejaculated semen from one person's mouth to another's.
5. (US) A type of ice dessert.
6. A small cake, typically cream-filled and covered in chocolate icing and desiccated coconut.
adjective
not comparable
1. Of something with rapid growth, often uncontrolled. Compare snowball effect.
  Quotations
  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, […], page 175
verb
third-person singular simple present snowballs, present participle snowballing, simple past and past participle snowballed
1. (intransitive) To rapidly grow out of proportion or control.
  Quotations
  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.
  2023 January 11, Philip Haigh, “Comment: The worst chaos for 40 years”, in RAIL, number 974, page 4
2. (intransitive) To play at throwing snowballs.
3. (transitive) To pelt with snowballs; to throw snowballs at.
4. (intransitive, slang) 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.

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