cannonball

plural cannonballs

1. engineeringA spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon.

   Synonyms: solid shot, ball, round shot

2. engineeringAn explosive-filled hollow iron sphere fused through a hole and intended to explode at a calculated distance rather than explode on impact.
3. divingThe 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

   1 more example

   The cannonball could be called the S.U.V. of the pool — oversized, brash, hormonally hardwired.

4. figurativelyslangSomething that moves fast, especially a fast train.

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

5. hobbiesA served ball that travels with great speed and describes little or no arc in flight.

present singular third person cannonballs · participle present cannonballing · participle past cannonballed · past cannonballed

1. intransitiveTo jump or dive into water, performing a cannonball landing.

   He cannonballed into the pool, drenching us all.

2. intransitiveTo career; to move rapidly.

   The car cannonballed past.

   1 more example

   It may come cannonballin' down through the sky / Gleam in its eye / Bright as a rose

   1957, Stephen Sondheim, “Something's Coming”, in West Side Story