Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Precipitation consisting of generally transparent frozen or partially frozen raindrops.
- n. A mixture of rain and snow or hail.
- n. A thin icy coating that forms when rain or sleet freezes, as on trees or streets.
- v. To shower sleet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Hail or snow mingled with rain, usually in fine particles, and frequently driven by the wind. A fall of sleet is due to one or more inversions in the normal decrease of temperature with increase of altitude, as, for example, when fine rain-drops falling from an air-current whose temperature is 32° F. or over freeze in traversing colder air-strata near the earth's surface.
- To rain and snow or hail at the same time.
- n. In gunnery, that part of a mortar which passes from the chamber to the trunnions for strengthening the chamber.
Wiktionary
- n. chiefly UK A mixture of rain and snow.
- n. Rain which freezes before reaching the ground.
- v. impersonal, of the weather To be in a state in which sleet is falling.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Gun.) The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.
- n. Hail or snow, mingled with rain, usually falling, or driven by the wind, in fine particles.
- v. To snow or hail with a mixture of rain.
WordNet 3.0
- v. precipitate as a mixture of rain and snow
- n. partially melted snow (or a mixture of rain and snow)
Etymologies
- According to Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, it is from Old Norse origin - slydda (whence Danish slud); akin to Middle High German sloz (German Schloße). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English slete, from Old English *slēte. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The hill-people in the country of Lampong speak indeed of a peculiar kind of rain that falls there, which some have supposed to be what we call sleet; but the fact is not sufficiently established.”
“The clouds are low and solid, and the blowing sleet is almost horizontal.”
“Don't have time to comment, going to give some serious tips how to stay warm like ATV and snowmobiling at 30 below or a 110 above, rain sleet or snow you can do it!”
“Once friends and I rode 27 miles in sleet to a drop camp, only to find that a bear had raided it: The tent was down, poles were scattered, ropes broken.”
Three Ways to Hunt Elk: Do It Yourself, With a Guide, or Get Dropped at Camp
“The word sleet, in the chorus, seems to be corrupted from selt or salt; a quantity of which, in compliance with a popular superstition, is frequently placed on the breast of a corpse.”
“A warmer temperature had thawed off the thin sleet, and the pavements were drying.”
“No sleet is keeping me away from the new Goodburger loation on 45th btw. 5+6th, which is now certified officially open (Eater take notice …) No more trekking north to the 50s or east to 3rd Ave, the heart of Midtown Lunch’ing finally has its very own overpriced burger place.”
“And of course around here it is never just snow; it is ice and sleet, which is a lot worse than snow -- unless you are in a full blown blizzard.”
“Our Lord's holy Mother had also a pure winding-sleet, that is, the garment of simple obedience, innocence and integral virginity.”
Meditations on the Life and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
“It is here where the ice-islands are formed; not from streams of water, but from consolidated snow and sleet, which is almost continually falling or drifting down from the mountains, especially in the winter, when the frost must be intense.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sleet’.
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bad memory
copper, anvil, oblique, thrust, shrine, welfare, farewell, bitter, faction, sectarian, tangible, spectacle and 134 more...
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Rainy weather report.
Today's weather.
is it rain, sprinkles, showers, sleet, or drizzle?
Are those drops, droplets?
Is the weatherman just using the word precipitation?
Is the scientist causing ...rain, shower, sprinkle, sleet, drizzle, drops, droplets, precipitation, freezing rain, thundershower, mist, pour and 126 more...
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Winter Words
Words that have to do with the Winter season.
snow, coat, hibernation, ice, christmas, cold, sleet, hail, december, january, evergreen, frost and 11 more...
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Igor's Lexicon
Classroom Vocabulary
mimic, blizzard, sleet, urge, oversee, fool, demonstrate, seek, breeze, gale, hurricane, droughts and 3 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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Words for ice and snow
Environmental Ice and Snow
(excluding all the food ice)ice, icicle, frazil, frasil, sleet, slush, snow, flurry, snowfall, freeze, flash-freeze, quick-freeze and 618 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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mango22's Words
avalanche, apple, arrividerci, awry, adamant, asunder, barter, beloved, calm, cataclysmic, catastrophe, coat and 143 more...
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Addenda to the 1923 Printing of Webst...
Many of these words first came into common usage during World War I, and reflect not only the technological and scientific leaps of the early part of the 20th century, but the new experience of glo...
abri, ace, acidosis, airdrome, air fleet, airplane, air raid, airworthy, altimeter, anaphylaxis, anociassociation, anti-aircraft and 292 more...
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Evin290's Words
puerile, fastidious, blatherskite, folderol, femtosecond, redox, incarnadine, cerulean, genuflection, muslin, multitudinous, miasma and 517 more...
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Creative Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like what they mean, but they're not *technically* onomatopoetic.
(another edit: this list is morphing into something I can't quite describe. But I still like it.)ugly, icon, hang, weenie, bell, zit, ennui, sour, speed, rankle, muddle, disgruntle and 129 more...
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april showers
it never rains but it:
rain, shower, drizzle, drip, pour, sprinkle, trickle, sleet, hail, snow, blizzard, precipitate and 33 more...
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colors the sky turns
cerulean, midnight, violet, pink, orange, blush, cornflower, slate, azure, fiery, sleet
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Whether the Weather
Should I bring an umbrella?
hurricane, tsunami, fog, tornado, thunderstorm, cyclone, blizzard, drizzle, hail, snow, sleet, graupel and 37 more...
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jannygirl's Words
definitely, scrumptious, smooth, rocket, memory, tangible, groove, massage, drastic, sweet, silly, reciprocal and 78 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sleet.
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