cannonball

See also: cannon ball

English

A stack of cannonballs

Etymology

From cannon +‎ ball from being a round ball that is fired from a cannon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkænənˌbɔːl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

cannonball (plural cannonballs)

1. (military, weaponry)
   1. A spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon.

      Synonyms: solid shot, ball, round shot

   2. An explosive-filled hollow iron sphere fused through a hole and intended to explode at a calculated distance rather than explode on impact.
2. (diving) The act of jumping (typically into a swimming pool) with the legs bent and the arms wrapped around the knees to create a large splash, mimicking the flight and shape of a cannonball.
   • The New Yorker, 30 August 2004, p.40
   • The cannonball could be called the S.U.V. of the pool — oversized, brash, hormonally hardwired.
3. (slang, figuratively) Something that moves fast, especially a fast train.

   Meetings of the model train club always begin with the song "Wabash Cannonball".

4. (tennis) A served ball that travels with great speed and describes little or no arc in flight.

Derived terms

• cannonball effect
• cannonballer
• cannonball fungus
• cannonball mangrove
• cannonball problem
• cannonball run
• cannonball tree
• human cannonball

 

Translations

spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon

• Afrikaans: kanonkoeël
• Armenian: հրանոթի գնդակ (hranotʻi gndak), թնդանոթի ռմբագունդ (tʻndanotʻi ṙmbagund)
• Bulgarian: гюле́ n (gjulé)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 砲彈／炮弹 (zh) (pàodàn)

• Danish: kanonkugle (da) c
• Dutch: kanonskogel (nl) m
• Finnish: tykinkuula (fi), kuula (fi)
• French: boulet de canon (fr) m
• German: Kanonenkugel (de) f
• Hungarian: ágyúgolyó (hu)
• Ido: kuglego (io)
• Italian: palla di cannone f
• Japanese: 砲弾 (ja) (ほうだん, hōdan)
• Korean: 포탄(砲彈) (ko) (potan), 대포알 (ko) (daepoal)
• Ladino: top m
• Macedonian: ѓу́ле n (ǵúle)
• Maranao: pinang, pitonang
• Middle English: gunneston
• Norman: balle dé canon f, boulet dé canon m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kanonkule m or f

  Nynorsk: kanonkule f

• Polish: kula armatnia f
• Portuguese: bala de canhão f
• Romanian: ghiulea (ro) f
• Russian: пу́шечное ядро́ n (púšečnoje jadró), ядро́ (ru) n (jadró)
• Serbo-Croatian: đule (sh) n
• Spanish: bala de cañón f
• Swedish: kanonkula (sv) c, kula (sv) c
• Turkish: gülle (tr)

jumping with the legs bent and the arms wrapped around the knees

• Dutch: bommetje (nl) n
• Finnish: pommi (fi)
• German: Arschbombe (de) f
• Macedonian: бо́мба (mk) f (bómba)
• Portuguese: bomba f, bala de canhão f

See also

(diving):

• jack-knife
• bellyflop
• backflop
• rip entry

Verb

cannonball (third-person singular simple present cannonballs, present participle cannonballing, simple past and past participle cannonballed)

1. (intransitive) To jump or dive into water, performing a cannonball landing.

   He cannonballed into the pool, drenching us all.

2. (intransitive) To career; to move rapidly.

   The car cannonballed past.

Translations

to move rapidly

• German: rasen (de)