snowball

/'snoubɔ:l/

Thân thiện

A child throws a snowball at a friend in the snowy yard.

Definition

1. Noun:

   • A ball of snow pressed together for throwing: A round mass of snow, typically made by hand, used for playful throwing.
   • A ball of crushed ice with fruit syrup: A type of dessert or drink consisting of finely shaved ice flavored with sweet syrup.
   • A ball of ice cream covered with coconut and chocolate sauce: A specific ice cream confection.
   • A plant with fragrant white flowers: A common name for certain shrubs, particularly Viburnum opulus (the guelder rose) or Abelia.

2. Verb:

   • To throw snowballs at someone or something: To engage in the activity of throwing balls of snow.
   • To increase rapidly in size, intensity, or importance: To grow or accumulate at an accelerating rate, much like a snowball rolling downhill gathers more snow.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:

  • The children made a snowball and threw it at the tree.
  • On a hot day, I love to get a raspberry snowball from the stand.
  • The snowball bush in the garden is in full bloom.

• Verb:

  • The kids decided to snowball the old barn door.
  • The protest began small but quickly snowballed into a major national movement.
  • Our initial investment snowballed over the years into a significant fortune.

Advanced Usage

• "To have a snowball's chance in hell": To have a very small or no chance of succeeding.

  • Without proper funding, our project has a snowball's chance in hell.

• "Snowball effect": A process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming larger and more significant.

  • The viral video created a snowball effect, leading to millions of views in just two days.

Variants and Related Words

• Snowballing (gerund/noun): The act or process of increasing rapidly.
  • The snowballing of debt became unmanageable.

Synonyms

• Noun (for the concept of rapid growth): Cascade, accumulation.
• Verb (for rapid growth): Escalate, mushroom, multiply, proliferate.

Related Phrasal Verbs/Verb Phrases

• Snowball into: To develop into something much larger or more serious.
  • A minor disagreement snowballed into a full-blown argument.

Related Idioms

• "A snowball's chance": A very slim possibility.
  • He has a snowball's chance of winning the race against the champion.

Học thuật

Noun

1. snow pressed into a ball for throwing (playfully)
2. ball of crushed ice with fruit syrup
3. ball of ice cream covered with coconut and usually chocolate sauce
4. plant having heads of fragrant white trumpet-shaped flowers; grows in sandy arid regions

Verb

1. throw snowballs at
2. increase or accumulate at a rapidly accelerating rate

Từ đồng nghĩa

• sweet sand verbena
• Abronia elliptica