ˈcannon-ˌball
[See ball n.1 5.]
1. a. A ball, usually of iron, to be thrown from a cannon. (Also collect. and as pl.)
| 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 872 Heavy brunt of cannon-ball. 1704 Lond. Gaz. No. 4077/2 Colonel Fox was killed with a Cannon-Ball. 1704 Collect. Voy. & Trav. III. 764/2, 800 Cannon-ball. 1848 W. K. Kelly tr. L. Blanc's Hist. Ten Y. II. 265 Being battered down with cannon balls. |
b. Hist. A nickname for the hard-headed remnant of the protectionist party in England.
| 1858 Sat. Rev. 30 Oct. 413/2 The amendment..which sealed for ever the fate of Protection, was carried [in 1852] with only fifty dissentient voices—the celebrated ‘cannon-balls’. |
2. cannon-ball fruit, the globular woody fruit of a South American tree, Couroupita guianensis (family Lecythidaceæ) or cannon-ball tree. Also simple attrib.
| 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 381/1 Cannon-ball tree. 1866 Treas. Bot. 342 The Cannon-ball fruit: its shell is used as a drinking vessel, and its pulp when fresh is of an agreeable flavour. 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 112 Perhaps the most remarkable of the order of Lecythidaceæ..was the so-called ‘Cannon-ball tree’. 1920 Tilden Lawn Tennis xiv. 146 A fast cannon-ball smash. |
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▸ Chiefly N. Amer. A dive or plunge into water made by jumping then tucking in the knees and arms tightly to the body, typically so as to make as big a splash as possible. Also cannonball dive.
| 1905 Health Dec. 443/1 Cannon-Ball Dive. Take a good run, jump high,..then double up and hold that position. 1931 Swimming & Water Safety (Boy Scouts of Amer.) ix. 226 Stunt and comic diving... ‘Cannon ball’—spring high into air from board, grasp knees to chest and drop into water with big splash. 1984 Nutshell (Gainesville ed.) Spring 34/2 They were doing cannonballs off the board to see who could displace the most water. 2004 Toronto Star (Nexis) 21 Jan. b5 He would be doing cannonballs into the pool with his four- and five-year-old grandkids when he was 70. |