snowball

Universal Words noun, verb noun 1 [C] a ball that you make out of snow to throw at sb/sth in a game: a snowball fight * Children were throwing snowballs at the passing traffic. 2 [sing.] (often used as an adjective) a situation that develops more and more quickly as it continues: All this publicity has had a snowball effect on the sales of their latest album. IDIOMS not have a snowball's chance in hell (of doing sth) (informal) to have no chance at all of doing sth verb [V] if a problem, a plan, an activity, etc. snowballs, it quickly becomes much bigger, more serious, more important, etc: Opposition to the proposals has snowballed.