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View synonyms for snow

snow

1

[ snoh ]

noun

  1. Meteorology. precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air. Compare ice crystals, snow grains, snow pellets.
  2. these flakes as forming a layer on the ground or other surface.
  3. the fall of these flakes or a storm during which these flakes fall.
  4. something resembling a layer of these flakes in whiteness, softness, or the like:

    the snow of fresh linen.

  5. Literary.
    1. white blossoms.
    2. the white color of snow.
  6. Slang. cocaine or heroin.
  7. Usually snows. Informal. snow tires ( def ):

    Most people up here keep their snows on through the end of April.

  8. white spots or bands on a television screen caused by a weak signal. Compare hash 1( def 5 ).


verb (used without object)

  1. to send down snow; fall as snow.
  2. to descend like snow.

verb (used with object)

  1. to let fall as or like snow.
  2. Slang.
    1. to make an overwhelming impression on:

      The view really snowed them.

    2. to persuade or deceive:

      She was snowed into believing everything.

verb phrase

    1. to cover with or bury in snow.
    2. to overwhelm with a larger amount of something than can be conveniently dealt with.
    3. to defeat overwhelmingly.

Snow

2

[ snoh ]

noun

  1. Sir Charles Percy C. P. Snow, 1905–80, English novelist and scientist.

Snow

1

/ snəʊ /

noun

  1. SnowC(harles) P(ercy), Baron19051980MBritishWRITING: novelistSCIENCE: physicist C ( harles ) P ( ercy ), Baron. 1905–80, British novelist and physicist. His novels include the series Strangers and Brothers (1949–70)
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


snow

2

/ snəʊ /

noun

  1. precipitation from clouds in the form of flakes of ice crystals formed in the upper atmosphere niveous
  2. a layer of snowflakes on the ground
  3. a fall of such precipitation
  4. anything resembling snow in whiteness, softness, etc
  5. the random pattern of white spots on a television or radar screen, produced by noise in the receiver and occurring when the signal is weak or absent
  6. slang.
    cocaine
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. intr; with it as subject to be the case that snow is falling
  2. tr; usually passive, foll by over, under, in, or up to cover or confine with a heavy fall of snow
  3. often withit as subject to fall or cause to fall as or like snow
  4. slang.
    tr to deceive or overwhelm with elaborate often insincere talk See snow job
  5. be snowed under
    to be overwhelmed, esp with paperwork
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

snow

/ snō /

  1. Precipitation that falls to earth in the form of ice crystals that have complex branched hexagonal patterns. Snow usually falls from stratus and stratocumulus clouds, but it can also fall from cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds.


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Derived Forms

  • ˈsnowless, adjective
  • ˈsnowˌlike, adjective
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Other Words From

  • snow·less adjective
  • snow·like adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of snow1

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun snou(e), Old English snāw; cognate with Dutch sneeuw, German Schnee, Old Norse snǣr, Gothic snaiws, Latin nix (genitive nivis ), Greek níps (accusative nípha ), Old Church Slavonic sněgŭ; verb derivative of the noun

Origin of snow2

First recorded in 1665–75
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Word History and Origins

Origin of snow1

Old English snāw; related to Old Norse snjōr, Gothic snaiws, Old High German snēo, Greek nipha
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Idioms and Phrases

  • pure as the driven snow
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Example Sentences

Even I learned some new bits, such as the glorious aside Baggott drily delivers that Francis Bacon died from pneumonia that he contracted from stuffing a dead chicken with snow to see if it would preserve it.

The slim, 1-inch body fits easily in a pocket, and with an IP rating of 68, the light won’t let you down in rain, sleet, or snow.

Spring arrived, as always in the Kashmir Valley, with melting snow and blossoming chinar trees.

His graduate research focused on the glacially carved lakes surrounding California’s Mount Shasta — a setting that gave Priscu, after a childhood in the Mojave Desert, full-on exposure to snow and ice.

Bright snow and ice reflect much of the incoming radiation from the sun.

Not quite, but at one point the temperature registered 29 below zero, with 21 inches of snow.

But mostly they just walked, their faces somber, their hands shaking as the snow began to fall.

There was snow on the ground when I made my last trip to see Sheffield.

“I think there's too much snow in Finland at the present time,” he announces.

Because the American film industry is based in the sun bleached sands of Southern California, movies rarely feature snow.

To advance in such circumstances was out of the question, he therefore set about building a miniature hut of snow.

By his commandment he maketh the snow to fall apace, and sendeth forth swiftly the lightnings of his judgment.

At the foot of the pass, the valley widened a little, though still with steep, snow-capped cliffs crowding it on either side.

I would not just then have traded off that steamboat for several square miles of snow-capped sublimity.

She may be as chaste as unsunned snow, she is certainly as cold: but for warm, inspiring virtue!

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Related Words

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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