Spit"ball` (?), n.
1.
Paper chewed, and rolled into a ball, to be thrown as a missile.
2.
(Baseball)
A pitched ball in
throwing which the pitcher grips the ball between two, or three,
fingers on one side (which is made slippery, as by saliva) and the
thumb on the other side, and delivers it so that it slips off the
fingers with the least possible friction. When pitched directly
overhand a spitball darts downward, when pitched with the arm
extended sidewise it darts down and out. -- Spitballer.
© Webster 1913.