cannonball
Americannoun
adjective
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made from a curled-up position with the arms pressing the knees against one's chest.
a cannonball dive.
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moving at great speed.
a train known as a cannonball express.
noun
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a projectile fired from a cannon: usually a solid round metal shot
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tennis
-
a very fast low serve
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( as modifier )
a cannonball serve
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-
a jump into water by a person who has his arms tucked into the body to form a ball
verb
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to rush along, like a cannonball
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to execute a cannonball jump
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cannonball
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“We need to have the basic things,” said Biniam Girmay, a high-speed cannonball from Eritrea who in 2024 won three sprint stages at the Tour de France.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
Of all the dirty, rotten, down-low things Netflix has done, providing a gaping pit of gold coins for Adam Sandler to cannonball into like Scrooge McDuck might be the worst so far.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2025
The British wanted to seize the ship and its treasure, but fired a cannonball into the San José’s powder magazines by mistake.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2024
You curl into a cannonball and pray for salvation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2024
A cannonball had landed in his fireplace during the first Battle of Bull Run, at the very start of the conflict.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
A crew digging a hole for an electrical conduit in Waltham, Massachusetts, Monday unearthed 13 cannonballs.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 28, 2023
Historical finds include cannonballs, a sword blade and a wheel experts believe belonged to a wagon that blew up during the two days of supply dumps.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
Eventually, jet propulsions and strong winds from within the pulsar eject the heated matter like cosmic cannonballs.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2023
“Sometimes, we’d wait until boats were coming into the harbor and do cannonballs, splashing them,” she recalled often.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2023
But then last night, they rolled it here by putting it on top of cannonballs in an iron track.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
