Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent hexagonal ice crystals that fall in soft, white flakes.
- n. A falling of snow; a snowstorm.
- n. Something resembling snow, as:
- n. The white specks on a television screen resulting from weak reception.
- n. Slang Cocaine.
- n. Slang Heroin.
- v. To fall as or in snow.
- v. To cover, shut off, or close off with snow: We were snowed in.
- v. Slang To overwhelm with insincere talk, especially with flattery.
- snow under To overwhelm: I was snowed under with work.
- snow under To defeat by a very large margin.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The aqueous vapor of the atmosphere precipitated in a crystalline form, and falling to the earth in flakes, each flake consisting of a distinct crystal, or more commonly of combinations of separate crystals. The crystals belong to the hexagonal system, and are generally in the form of thin plates and long needles or spiculæ; by their different modes of union they present uncounted varieties of very beautiful figures. The whiteness of snow is due primarily to the large number of reflecting surfaces arising from the minuteness of the crystals. When sufficient pressure is applied, the slightly adhering crystals are brought into molecular contact, and the snow, losing its white color, assumes the form of ice. This change takes place when snow is gradually transformed into the ice of a glacier. Precipitation takes the form of snow when the temperature of the air at the earth's surface is near or below the freezing-point, and the flakes are larger the moister the air and the higher its temperature. The annual depth of snowfall and the number of days on which the ground is covered with snow are important elements of climate. In a ship's log-book abbreviated s.
- n. A snowfall; a snow-storm.
- n. A winter; hence, in enumeration, a year: as, five snows.
- n. Something that resembles snow, as white blossoms.
- n. In heraldry, white; argent.
- To fall as snow: used chiefly impersonally: as, it snows; it snowed yesterday.
- To scatter or cause to fall like snow.
- To surround, cover, or imprison with snow: with in, up, under, or over: often used figuratively. See snow-bound.
- n. A vessel equipped with two masts, resembling the mainmast and foremast of a ship, and a third small mast just abaft and close to the mainmast, carrying a trysail. It is identical with a brig, except that the brig bends her fore-and-aft mainsail to the mainmast, while the snow bends it to the trysail-mast. Vessels are no longer rigged in this way.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable The frozen, crystalline state of water that falls as precipitation.
- n. uncountable Any similar frozen form of gas or liquid.
- n. uncountable A shade of the color white.
- n. uncountable The area of frequency on a television which has no programmes broadcast in analogue sets, the image is created by the Electrical noise.
- n. uncountable, slang Cocaine.
- n. countable A snowfall; a blanket of frozen, crystalline water.
- v. impersonal To have snow fall from the sky.
- v. colloquial To hoodwink someone, especially by presenting confusing information.
- v. poker To bluff in draw poker by refusing to draw any cards.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Naut.) A square-rigged vessel, differing from a brig only in that she has a trysail mast close abaft the mainmast, on which a large trysail is hoisted.
- n. Watery particles congealed into white or transparent crystals or flakes in the air, and falling to the earth, exhibiting a great variety of very beautiful and perfect forms.
- n. Fig.: Something white like snow, as the white color (argent) in heraldry; something which falls in, or as in, flakes.
- v. To fall in or as snow; -- chiefly used impersonally
- v. To scatter like snow; to cover with, or as with, snow.
WordNet 3.0
- n. precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals
- n. a layer of snowflakes (white crystals of frozen water) covering the ground
- n. English writer of novels about moral dilemmas in academe (1905-1980)
- v. fall as snow
- v. conceal one's true motives from especially by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end
- n. street names for cocaine
Etymologies
- From Middle English snow, snaw, from Old English snāw ("snow"), from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz (“snow”), from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos (“snow”). Cognate with Scots snaw ("snow"), West Frisian snie ("snow"), Dutch sneeuw ("snow"), German Schnee ("snow"), Danish sne ("snow"), Norwegian snø ("snow"), Swedish snö ("snow"), Icelandic snjór ("snow"), Latin nix ("snow"), Russian снег (sneg), dialectal Albanian nehë ("place where the snow melts"). Also, from the same Indo-European root *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”) comes English snew. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English snāw. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The red curve is the air temperature a few cm above the snow surface between 18:50 and 23:30 and the blue curve is the temperature ~18 cm below the snow*.”
“Warnings of _snow flurries, snow squalls_, or _blowing and drifting snow_ are important mainly because visibility may be reduced and roads may become slippery or blocked.”
In Time of Emergency A Citizen's Handbook on Nuclear Attack, Natural Disasters (1968)
“The red curve is the air temperature a few cm above the snow surface between 18: 50 and 23: 30 and the blue curve is the temperature ~18 cm below the snow*.”
“Many people still use the term snow tire - but in reality tire companies no longer offer such a product.”
“The problem with having to bring in snow is unfortunate but the choice of venue for snowboarding and freestyle was very questionable.”
Think Progress » After warmest January in history, Vancouver airlifts in snow for Winter Olympics.
“As he arrives, a blizzard isolates the city and almost buries it in snow — for which the Turkish word is kar.”
“But everyone knows that mountain snow is one of the LARGEST reserves of water on earth.”
“Bailey said the term snow flurries means snow is expected but there will be little or no accumulation on the ground.”
“The critical part of any shelter in the snow is ample insulation to keep your body off the frozen ground or it will suck the warmth right out of you.”
“It seems crazy to be skiing in April, but the snow is there, so why not?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘snow’.
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Impressionism
Words that describe the art of the impressionist era.
seascapes, landscapes, modern, impression, impressionist, contemporary, flicker, sensation, modernity, perceived, perceiving, momentary and 142 more...
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EN - pseudo-English words
English words used by foreigners in a different sense than they would be used by native speakers + madeupical "English" words that sound English but are not recognized as such by native speakers of...
top, spa, sig, DM, box, videobar, vest, tutor, polo, touringcar, topfit, abseiling and 263 more...
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 221 more...
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Any words List Its open!!
Im savin it for later
awesepoto
cooliest
sup
a-w-e-s-o-m-e
cool beans dude
hit me man
Rock on
Get a life dude
book timeweird, mongolian, 7457, saitin, toejam, aver, misanthrope, blandishment, cadge, fuschia, fuchsia, discotheque and 367 more...
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Water always flows downhill
The path of least resistance, watercourses, plumbing....
swale, hollow, creek, crick, depression, holler, draw, ditch, corrie, cwm, continental divide, stream and 89 more...
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the curious incident of the dog in th...
words from a novel by mark haddon
dog, garden fork, Wellington, prime, maths, clench, The Hound of the ..., police, dead, bread-slicing mac..., groaning, drawn and 126 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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Do-it-yourself Christmas Carol List
Tired of singing the same carols year after year? Wanna mix it up a little? Now you can, with the Do-it-yourself Christmas Carol List (from the creator of the Doo-it-yourself Doowop List). Just mix...
let it, reindeer, silent, child, Christmas, got run over by a, mercy mild, winter, joyful, holly, newborn, king and 59 more...
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White Stuff
White things
Feel free too addtalc, refrigerator, snow, flour, sugar, paper, bedlinen, pillows, white, chalk, envelope, vanilla and 26 more...
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• Senses
They told you they're five.
sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, proprioception, balance, temperature, parking, rhythm, business, snow and 68 more...
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Walking in the snow
If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, I would suggest this other list.
snow, snotsicle, scarf, snowsuit, mittens, gloves, hat, layers, boots, eyelashes freezin..., chemical heat pack, coveralls and 31 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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Stuffie: Crunchie
Stuff that's crunchy.
caliche, twigs, rice cakes, cheerios, dry leaves, snow, matzo crackers, fried wontons, corn chips, cinder, gravel paths, ice crystals and 14 more...
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beyond pale
Words meaning or invoking the different aspects of pale.
Not just colour, but also the ideas of impermanence, illness, weakness. (Just not the two noun forms – a thin strip of metal or woo...pale, pallid, wan, light, misty, ethereal, cream, dim, white, thin, waning, colourless and 62 more...
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Hollow Land
hollow land, the final course, aged spire, unbraid, eternal bleeds, hollow nest, wild decadence, furrows snowy, egg on a queen’s ..., william blake, undiscovered grave, billow and 23 more...
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mother nature
interesting acts of nature
( randomness, visual, setting, environment )firefly squid dro..., tornado, circumhorizontal arc, rainbow, waterfall, murmuration, hail, snow, glacier, volcano, giant redwoods, northern lights and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for snow.

adoarns In hospitals, means to completely gork or zonk out a patient by means of sedative or other medications. Feb 5, 2008
reesetee Lovely quote. :-) Dec 4, 2007
bilby “This day the spring had decided to be not poetical but simply cheerful. It had spread flocks of small scatterbrained clouds in the sky; it swept down the last specks of snow from every roof; it made new little brooks run everywhere and was playing at April the best it could...�? — Tove Jansson, 'Moominland Midwinter' (translated by Thomas Warburton). Dec 4, 2007