How to Use spitball in a Sentence

spitball

noun

• The kids were shooting spitballs at each other.
• Democrats, for the first two years of Trump’s presidency, got to sit in the back row and shoot spitballs.
  — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 17 June 2019
• Dude really did a spitball and dapped up Kobe Bean Bryant on the way out, bro.
  — The Crossover Staff, SI.com, 3 May 2018
• That said, with the trade deadline now in view, some of the spitballs soon will have to start to stick to walls if indeed the Red Sox are to upgrade.
  — Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 29 July 2019
• Like when Tony got a spitball stuck under young Travis’ eyelid.
  — Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2022
• Please, a bully who just the day before shot a spitball into a classmate’s ear.
  — Los Angeles Times, 28 Sep. 2019
• Screwball, knuckleball, spitball, from down by his hip to up around his ear and all points in between.
  — Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 29 Mar. 2020
• What's it matter to them to put the people's work on hold and throw spitballs at each other for nearly two months – at the taxpayers' expense, by the way?
  — Jason Williams, Cincinnati.com, 5 June 2018
• The class clowns who merrily threw spitballs at New York’s artistic landscape three decades ago are now, in more ways than one, seniors.
  — Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 7 May 2017
• Haji Wright misplayed a first touch on a sublime chance—and then, moments later, smeared a cross from Pulisic off the ground that somehow spun like a spitball into the corner of the goal to put the U.S. on the board.
  — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 3 Dec. 2022
• Aside from Will Byers (Noah Schnapp), she is seen having trouble making new friends — and some of her classmates are seen chucking a spitball her way.
  — Kelly Wynne, PEOPLE.com, 23 Mar. 2022
• The perpetrators and proponents of the Gehry design have been throwing spitballs for years.
  — George Weigel, National Review, 27 Sep. 2017
• Its construction was the result of a spitball Indiana threw at Chicago in 1953.
  — Ron Grossman, Chicago Tribune, 25 Sep. 2022
• There also used to be a type of pitch called a spitball, when a pitcher would literally spit on the ball or lick his fingers and rub them around on the ball before throwing it.
  — Aj Willingham, CNN, 1 July 2020
• And America was not yet locked in its forever spitball war between pro-Trump and anti-Trump forces.
  — Joe Heim, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2019
• Online, political memes flew back and forth like spitballs, and even some of the most innocent ones (like that fish tube) took on a sense of ecstatic nihilism.
  — Emma Grey Ellis, Wired, 21 Dec. 2019
• Renlund could practice no medicine on the mound, of course, since doctoring a baseball (think spitball) is strictly forbidden.
  — David Noyce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 28 July 2022
• While Choate worked with one student, others performed the online equivalent of passing notes in class, or firing spitballs.
  — Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, 19 Mar. 2020
• Midseason, New York ace Jack Chesbro unveiled a spitball and became unhittable, winning 41 games in a record that still stands.
  — Dom Amore, courant.com, 4 Oct. 2021
• The right-hander was one of the final spitball pitchers in baseball history and finished his career with 254 victories.
  — Tommy Birch, USA TODAY, 10 Aug. 2022
• After the game, Orioles manager Davey Johnson accused the 39-year-old pitcher of throwing a spitball.
  — Matt Young, Houston Chronicle, 30 July 2020
• Like the kid in the back of the classroom tossing spitballs and making fart sounds, a journal of subversive humor is funny only if there’s someone up front attempting to maintain order.
  — David Von Drehle, The Denver Post, 7 July 2019
• Subsequent adjustments included banishing the spitball, adopting a smaller armpit-to-knee strike zone and adding the DH to American League play.
  — David Wharton, Los Angeles Times, 16 May 2022
• And yet, gradually, despite the consternation of his aides (and the authors’ narrative intent), Trump emerges as more than just a needy adolescent throwing spitballs at the deep state.
  — Joe Klein, Washington Post, 16 Jan. 2020
• Slippery elms are also used for furniture and other commercial purposes, and before the rules of baseball forbade it, pitchers would chew on the bark to throw a better spitball.
  — Connor Giffin, The Courier-Journal, 28 Sep. 2022
• That included two of the doctor’s own children, one so disruptive a teacher put him in a large cardboard box in the classroom and one who made regular trips to the principal’s office, often for firing spitballs.
  — Graydon Megan, chicagotribune.com, 28 Aug. 2019
• The spitball also was outlawed in 1920, ending an era when pitchers were allowed to load up a ball with saliva produced naturally, or with help from chewing gum or slippery elm (a lozenge taken for coughs and colds) to make their pitches move.
  — Kirk Kenney, sandiegouniontribune.com, 2 July 2017
• And for as much as something like the Oscars tends to reward editing that can make sense of big, bombastic productions, editing really matters for comedies, where punchlines can snap with the right cut or thud like a wet spitball with a sloppy one.
  — Caroline Framke, Vox, 2 Apr. 2018
• Having to indulge every amateur suggestion in a spitballing session can feel as offensive as if the spitballs were literal.
  — Karla L. Miller, Washington Post, 23 Feb. 2023
• This is a rule originally implemented years ago to address safety concerns with the unpredictable trajectory of the spitball.
  — Michael Peregrine, Forbes, 15 June 2021

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024