snow
Forms
- Plural
- snows
- present (v1)
- snow
- past (v2)
- snowed
- past participle (v3)
- snowed
- present participle
- snowing
- 3rd person singular
- snows
Definitions
1.The partly frozen, crystalline state of water that falls from the atmosphere as precipitation in flakes; also, the falling of such flakes; and the accumulation of them on the ground or on objects as a white layer.
- We have had several heavy snows this year.
- Snow is white, / And lieth in the dike. And every man lets it lye.
- TRUE FACT: On June 8, 1995, Glacier National Park was closed because of too much snow.
2.Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.
- Clad in a coldsuit Jael trudged through a thin layer of CO₂ snow towards the gates of the Arena.
- Aren’t I telling you that’s why I didn’t taste it? […] Besides, if it wasn’t poison, it might be ‘snow’ or something.
- Ere now marmoreal floods had spread their couch / Of perdurable snow, or granite wrought / Its skyward impulse from earth's hearth of fire / Up to insanest heights.
1.To cause (hair) to turn white; also, to cause (someone) to have white hair.
2.Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have snow (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1) fall from the atmosphere.
- It is snowing. It started to snow.
- Oh! the weather outside is frightful / But the fire is so delightful / And since we've no place to go, / Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
- And there the Ionian father of the rest; / A million wrinkles carved his skin; / A hundred winters snow'd upon his breast, / From cheek and throat and chin.
3.To cause (something) to fall like snow.
- A sweep of chilly air passed by, rustling all the leaves and snowing the flaky ashes broadcast about the fire.
4.To cover or scatter (a place or thing) with, or as if with, snow.
1.Done because the alternate outcome is very unlikely to pass.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2092
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English snaw, snou, snow (“snow; accumulation of snow; snowfall; snowstorm; whiteness”), from Old English snāw (“snow”), from Proto-West Germanic *snaiw (“snow”), from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz (“snow”), from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos (“snow”), from *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”).