spitball

plural spitballs

1. ball gamesA pitch of a baseball that has been partly covered with saliva, illegal at most levels.
2. A balled-up piece of paper, moistened with saliva (by chewing) and shot through a drinking straw.First known use 19th c.

present singular third person spitballs · participle present spitballing · participle past spitballed · past spitballed

1. ball gamesTo moisten the ball with saliva before pitching it.
2. figurativelyTo brainstorm ideas.First known use 1940s

   —Yes, Wheeler? —Question. Maybe a stupid one, but I'm just spitballing here.

   2008, David Wain, Paul Rudd, Ken Marino, Timothy Dowling, 01:09:07 from the start, in Role Models

   2 more examples

   Maybe, and I'm just spitballing here, maybe, we have a responsibility as officers to train Santiago.

   1992, Aaron Sorkin, A Few Good Men

   What happens, though, if you, the filmmaker, can't get the malevolence to work? That's where Jaws had its happy misfortune, its felix culpa. When the mechanical sharks failed to work[…][Steven] Spielberg and his cast had nothing to do but hole up evening after evening in a Martha's Vineyard house and spitball about the script, story and characters.

   2025 June 14, Nigel Andrews, “They don’t come any bigger”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 13