to do a cannonball
1
3.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
hacer un salto de bomba
- During the party, the kids took turns to do a cannonball from the side of the pool, laughing as water sprayed everywhere.
Examples
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- Do a cannonball.
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Do a cannonball.
Fiction book (1997) -
Totally unrelated, but I did a cannonball into the nastiest algae-covered lake ever during Warrior Dash Carolinas this weekend, right onto my friends whom I peer pressured into doing it with me.
Blog text (32) -
Hannah and the others watched, open-mouthed, as he did a cannonball off the dock.
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In the hot summer sun, I did a cannonball into the cool, refreshing pool, creating a huge splash.
Synonyms
1
3.8
To jump into water with your knees pulled to your chest to make a big splash
How Splashy
Surface Forms
Morphology
do + a + cannonball
The phrase is a straightforward light-verb construction: 'do' (perform) + 'a' (article) + 'cannonball' (a named dive that produces a big splash), so the overall meaning is directly derivable from the constituents. This compositional pattern ('do a X' = perform X) is common in English and cross-linguistically familiar, making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the word 'cannonball' in this sense.
Etymology
The expression do a cannonball comes from the picture of a person pulling their knees to their chest to make a tight round shape like a cannonball, then hitting the water and making a huge splash. That's why it means 'to jump into water while pulling the knees to the chest to make a big splash'.