cannonball
anything that moves with great speed, as an express train.
made from a curled-up position with the arms pressing the knees against one's chest: a cannonball dive.
moving at great speed: a train known as a cannonball express.
Origin of cannonball
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use cannonball in a sentence
The ensuing tirade concluded with a gratifying Clinton cannon ball: “Shame on you!”
He had not the least idea what wadding was, and his notion of a bullet was a dockyard cannon-ball bigger than his own head.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II | Rudyard KiplingOn the night of June the 11th a red-hot cannon-ball set fire to one of the barracks which was used as a hospital.
The Red Year | Louis TracyA cannon-ball crashed through the mud wall and bounded across the enclosure.
The Red Year | Louis TracyRoussel had his head carried off by a cannon ball, and Murat had two horses shot under him.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology | Joel Munsell
Take up a heavy iron cannon-ball: this ball is composed of invisible molecules which do not touch each other.
Urania | Camille Flammarion
British Dictionary definitions for cannonball
/ (ˈkænənˌbɔːl) /
a projectile fired from a cannon: usually a solid round metal shot
tennis
a very fast low serve
(as modifier): a cannonball serve
a jump into water by a person who has his arms tucked into the body to form a ball
(often foll by along, etc) to rush along, like a cannonball
to execute a cannonball jump
very fast or powerful
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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