the.com/cheese ball

means A party appetizer of soft cheese blended with seasonings, shaped into a ball, and typically rolled in chopped nuts, herbs, or bacon bits before serving with crackers.

from A straightforward compound of 'cheese' plus 'ball,' describing exactly what it is — cheese worked into a spherical shape. The dish became a staple of mid-20th-century American party food, especially potlucks and holiday spreads, where cream cheese mixed with cheddar, spices, and mix-ins got molded into a crust-coated sphere. The name needed no cleverness; it's one of the rare foods that describes its own shape literally. The slang sense of 'cheese ball' meaning a corny or cheesy person came later, riding on 'cheesy' already meaning tacky or sentimental.