Dictionary

spitball en · NOUN

From spit + ball.

A pitch of a baseball that has been partly covered with saliva, illegal at most levels.
A balled-up piece of paper, moistened with saliva (by chewing) and shot through a drinking straw.

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
spitballs	Number=Plur		lexicographic

From spit + ball.

To moisten the ball with saliva before pitching it.
(figuratively) To brainstorm ideas.
- Maybe, and I'm just spitballing here, maybe, we have a responsibility as officers to train Santiago. 1992, Aaron Sorkin, A Few Good Men:
- —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:
- 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:

Spelling	Features	Source
spitballs	Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres	lexicographic
spitballed	Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part	lexicographic
spitballed	Tense=Past	lexicographic
spitballing	Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part	lexicographic