gum ball
1
1.4
- noun
- /ɡʌm bɔl/
:
bola de chicle
- After lunch, we enjoyed delicious gum balls while walking through the park.
Examples
-
Here, don't spend it all on gum balls.
-
Who wants to chew my gum balls?
-
Funky, want a gum ball?
-
Thousands of gum balls.
Fiction book (1998) -
As the Babyzillas run, they begin to stumble all over each other, tripping on the gum balls.
Fiction book (1998) -
They were full of plastic jewelry, gum balls, and brown pieces of nut candies shaped like tiny pineapples.
Fiction book (1992) -
I bought a handful of colorful gum balls from the vending machine at the arcade.
-
The children gathered around the vending machine, excitedly choosing their favorite gum balls.
Synonyms
9
1.4
A small round candy with a hard shell and chewy center often sold in machines
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a small, round piece of chewing gum' is directly and compositionally derived from 'gum' (chewing substance) + 'ball' (spherical object); a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer a ball-shaped gum. This noun–noun compounding is productive in English and mirrored in many languages, making the phrase immediately understandable to learners.
Etymology
Gum ball comes from its simple, literal shape: a small, round piece of gum that looks like a ball, often with a hard, colored sugar shell from vending machines. That's why gum ball means 'a small, round piece of chewing gum'.