snowball
Americannoun
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snowballs
plural
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any of several shrubs belonging to the genus Viburnum, of the honeysuckle family, having large clusters of white, sterile flowers.
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a confection of crushed ice, usually in the shape of a ball, which is flavored with fruit or other syrup and served in a paper cup.
-
a scoop or ball of ice cream covered with shredded coconut and usually chocolate sauce.
verb (used with object)
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snowballs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
snowballed,
past participle, past
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snowballing
present participle
-
to throw snowballs at.
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to cause to grow or become larger, greater, more intense, etc., at an accelerating rate.
to snowball a small business into a great enterprise.
verb (used without object)
-
snowballs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
snowballed,
past participle, past
-
snowballing
present participle
noun
-
snow pressed into a ball for throwing, as in play
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a drink made of advocaat and lemonade
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slang a mixture of heroin and cocaine
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a dance started by one couple who separate and choose different partners. The process continues until all present are dancing
verb
-
(intr) to increase rapidly in size, importance, etc
their woes have snowballed since last year
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(tr) to throw snowballs at
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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snowballsimple
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snowballssimple
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have snowballedperfect
-
has snowballedperfect
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am snowballingprogressive
-
are snowballingprogressive
-
is snowballingprogressive
-
have been snowballingperfect progressive
-
has been snowballingperfect progressive
Past
-
snowballedsimple
-
had snowballedperfect
-
was snowballingprogressive
-
were snowballingprogressive
-
had been snowballingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of snowball
Vocabulary lists containing snowball
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:
He wanted to distance himself from the scams that he was seeing—and from the way he had watched this one minor detail in his life story snowball.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
"I'm optimistic that we're all snowflakes in that snowball that's getting bigger and bigger."
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
He describes it as a "big snowball effect".
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
If Japan’s interest rates increase again to support the yen then there’s a danger it could snowball again as savings rush home and hedge funds cash in their chips all at once.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
I hold the snowball in my hand, fluffy and compact, the flakes catching the sunlight.
From "Lucky Broken Girl" by Ruth Behar
This process gives comets their fuzzy appearance and explains why astronomers often refer to them as "dirty snowballs."
From Science Daily ● May 14, 2026
Video shows snowballs flying at them from multiple directions.
From Slate ● Feb. 28, 2026
The goal: hit all seven players on the opposing team using perfectly spherical snowballs made with a special machine, or capture their flag.
From Barron's ● Feb. 22, 2026
That’s because it provides a buffer against many surprise expenses that may wind up as credit-card debt, which is often hard to pay off and snowballs due to high interest rates.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 17, 2025
Hold-Your-Nose Billy, his eyes round as snowballs, went charging off into the river.
From "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman
“Disagreeing and arguing about the business snowballed into arguing about everything. Down to like what’s for dinner,” she said in the episode.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Then, coupled with Cheah’s own social-media efforts, it snowballed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
What began as online outrage over exam scandals has snowballed into protests against India's education system, posing one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term in office.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
She said it was accepted that what had started in 2019 as a "misguided wish" on the part of the defendant to help friends and family then "snowballed" into something far larger.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
He plunged and snowballed and tumbled and laughed until the sky in the west turned fiery orange.
From "Wringer" by Jerry Spinelli
Once that crude reaches refiners, costs are snowballing further.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Jason Arday, who made headlines when appointed as Cambridge's youngest black professor in 2023, resigned Wednesday after the university announced a probe into snowballing claims he plagiarised parts of his PhD thesis.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
It’s been a wild ride for the pair, but despite their snowballing fame, they swear they’re like any other dad and daughter who bicker, joke around and simply enjoy each other’s company.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The report had the effect of snowballing losses, as the company had already disclosed problems impacting over 6,000 aircraft.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 1, 2025
By the time they finished snowballing Dorothy Gruzik’s house, it was nearly white, and Beans had forgotten that he was cold.
From "Wringer" by Jerry Spinelli
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.
