Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A Middle English (and more original) spelling of snow.
  • A Middle English or modern dialectal preterit of snow.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To snow; to abound.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive, obsolete To snow.
  • verb intransitive, obsolete To abound.
  • verb dialectal Simple past of snow.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English snīwan ("to snow"), from Proto-Germanic *snīwanan, from Proto-Indo-European *sneygʷʰ-.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See snow.

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Examples

  • It blew and snew and then it thew, and now, by jing, it's friz.

    Weather sayings: Do they have any value? Don Lipman 2010

  • I alway snew the Watt things was a slander because I've been a SOuthern Baptist for over 30 years and I have not once EVER heard ANY evangelical Protestant say anything ever of the sort -- not in private, not in public, not in prayer meeting, Bible study, worship service, in the bathroom -- anywhere.

    An invitation to Moyers and Watt, accepted by one. Which one? Ann Althouse 2005

  • The analogy of knew suggests snew as the preterite of to snow, and it is sometimes encountered in the American vulgate.

    Chapter 9. The Common Speech. 3. The Verb Henry Louis 1921

  • Thus snew grows rare and is in decay, but knowed shows vigor, and so do growed and throwed.

    Chapter 9. The Common Speech. 3. The Verb Henry Louis 1921

  • 'If you heerd,' said Mr. Peggotty, 'owt of what passed between Mas'r Davy and me, th' night when it snew so hard, you know as I have been - wheer not - fur to seek my dear niece.

    David Copperfield Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 1917

  • 'If you heerd,' said Mr. Peggotty, 'owt of what passed between Mas'r Davy and me, th' night when it snew so hard, you know as I have been-wheer not-fur to seek my dear niece.

    David Copperfield 1850

  • (Chaucer); ‘snow’ ‘snew’; ‘sow’ ‘sew’; ‘delve’ ‘dalf’ and ‘dolve’;

    English Past and Present Richard Chenevix Trench 1846

  • Mas'r Davy and me, th 'night when it snew so hard, you know as I have been - wheer not - fur to seek my dear niece.

    David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1841

  • Tata Steel is set to invest in a Canadian firm to ensure raw material securityas it build snew plants at Kalinganagar and Chhattisgarh, as it plans to expand capacity at Jamshedpur.

    WN.com - Business News 2010

  • There's a 60% chance of snow after 7 p.m., with less than an inch of new snew accumulation possible.

    Paul & Matt's Sports Attack 2010

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