Also 5 snoweballe, 6 snowbal(le, 7– snow-ball; 5 north. snayballe, 8–9 Sc. snawbaw, 9 -ba’. [f. SNOW sb.1 + BALL sb.1 Cf. WFris. sniebal, MDu. snee(u)-, sneubal, Du. sneeuwbal, G. schneeball, Da. snebold, Sw. snöboll, Norw. snjoball.]
1. A ball of snow, esp. one made of a size convenient for throwing by hand.
c. 1400. Brut, cxcviii. Meny of þe citee … caste oppon him meny snoweballes, and meny oþer reproues dede him.
1483. Cath. Angl., 346/2. Snayballe, floccus, nivenodium.
a. 1530. Heywood, Play of Wether, 1011 (Brandl). All my pleasure is in … makynge of snow ballys and throwyng the same.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. v. 24. My bellies as cold as if I had swallow’d snowbals.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Job xxxviii. 22. We see … what paines they take to rake and scrape together snow to make a Snow-ball.
1677. Horneck, Gt. Law Consid., iv. 149. As wise an act, as to hope to be warm by … surrounding thy self with snow-balls.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 281. If I take a snow-ball into my hand, I shall be satisfied of its coldness by my sensation.
1789. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., II. (1791), 25, note. If a piece of Camphor be immersed in a snow-ball.
1816. Byron, Swiss Jrnl., Wks. 180/2. I made a snowball and pelted Hobhouse with it.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exped., xxx. (1856), 258. By-and-by the sludge which we passed through … became pancakes and snow-balls.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 158. When a schoolboy makes a snowball, he squeezes a handful or two of light snow into a hard compact lump.
b. In allusive use. (Common in the 17th c.)
(a) 1612. Webster, White Devil, IV. iii. H 1 b. I, I, your good heart gathers like a snow-ball Now your affection’s cold.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 519. They passed through Fraunce, Germanie, Hungarie, their company (like a snow ball) encreasing as they went.
1674. Govt. Tongue, vi. 75. For reports we know like snow balls gather still the farther they roule.
1740. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 163. For they are like a snow-ball, and intend to gather company as they go.
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII. 610. His army, increasing like a snowball.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. 43. The Caravan like a snow-ball, increases in bulk as it rolls on.
(b) 1622. 1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 33. The Rebels tooke their way towards Yorke.… But their Snow-ball did not gather as it went.
1645. Pagitt, Heresiogr. (1647), 3. Before this snowball grew greater by rolling, Count Mansfield raiseth forces.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xix. Wks. 1851, III. 473. Such a Snowball hee might easily gather by rowling through those cold and dark provinces of ignorance and leudness.
† c. Sc. In the fig. phr. to cast snowballs, to be reserved or distant. Obs.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., IV. i. I trow sae,… lasses will come to at last, Tho’ for a while they maun their snaw-baws cast.
1821. Liddle, Poems, 236. The lasses a’ their snaw-baws cast, For fear we should betray.
d. The pastime of snow-balling.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 55. 3/2. A Game at Snow-ball.
2. Cookery. One or other of various dishes or confections intended to resemble a ball of snow in appearance.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 263. To make Snow Balls. Pare five large … apples, make a little good hot paste, and roll your apples in it,… make iceing for them … and ice them all over with it about a quarter of an inch thick.
1854. ‘Marion Harland,’ Alone, xxx. 358. There’s a dozen loaves of cake, and ever so many snow-balls wont get in the big sideboard, no how!
1877. Cassell’s Dict. Cookery, 887. Fry the snowballs till they are lightly set.
3. slang or jocular. (See quots.)
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Snowball, a jeering appellation for a negroe.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memor. (ed. 3), 45, note. Lily-whites (or Snow-balls), Negroes.
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xlvi. The sweep was passing by, and I called him ‘snow-ball.’
4. a. The Guelder rose, Viburnum opulus, or one of its clusters of white flowers.
1799. Southey, Eng. Ecl., Poet Wks. III. 4. In spring the lilac and the snow-ball flower.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Snow-ball, the Guelder Rose.
1850. Beck’s Florist, July, 171. Here’s snowballs, and waxberries, and mock-orange flowers, and lilacs.
1880. Bessey, Botany, 518. Many species [of Caprifoliaceæ] are ornamental—e.g. … Viburnum, the Snowball.
b. U.S. (See quots.)
1834. Audubon, Ornith., II. 121. The Swamp Snowball, Hydrangea quercifolia,… found on the broken sandy banks bordering small watercourses.
1902. Webster’s Suppl., Wild snowball..., the New Jersey tea (Ceanothus Americanus), so called from its clusters of small white flowers.
1909. Cent. Dict., Suppl., Little snowball, the button-bush, Cephalanthus occidentalis.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. Miscellaneous, as snowball chrysanthemum, fritters, -like adv., war.
1662. Hibbert, Body of Divinity, I. 188. Fame (snow-ball like) crescit eundo.
1877. Cassell’s Dict. Cookery, 887. Snowball Fritters.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 6 Jan., 4/1. Giant snowball chrysanthemums.
1901. ‘Ian Maclaren,’ Yng. Barbarians, iv. As the snowball war was a serious affair.
b. Snowball-tree, the Guelder rose (cf. 4 a).
So WFris. sniebalbeam, Du. sneeuwbalboom, Sw. snöbollsbuske, -träd.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 317. Snowball-tree, Viburnum.
1783. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), X. 8713/2. This tree when in bloom exhibits a singularly fine appearance; the flowers … are collected numerously into large globular umbels round like a ball; hence, it is sometimes called snowball-trees.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1859), 168. The well-known Snow-ball Tree … is a cultivated state, with the whole cyme turned into large sterile flowers.
c. Used to denote increase by a kind of geometrical progression, as snowball contribution, letter, system, etc.
1897. Westm. Gaz., 8 April, 7/2. An anonymous ‘snowball’ contribution has been started. Ibid. (1899), 28 Jan., 6/1. The scheme of old-age pensions on the snowball system…. They offer magnificent terms to any assurer who gets them ten other assurers,… and so on, like the rolling snowball.
