spitball

noun

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

verb

1. To moisten the ball with saliva before pitching it.
2. (figuratively)To brainstorm ideas.

   “Maybe, and I'm just spitballing here, maybe, we have a responsibility as officers to train Santiago.”

   “—Yes, Wheeler? —Question. Maybe a stupid one, but I'm just spitballing here.”

   “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.”