Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of several bulbous Eurasian plants of the genus Galanthus, having solitary, nodding white flowers that bloom in early spring.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A low herb. Galanthus nivalis, a very early wild flower of European woods, often cultivated. The name is also applied, in an extended sense, to the genus. G. plicatus, the Crimean snowdrop, is larger, with broader plicate leaves. See
Galanthus and purification-flower.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of the 20 species of the genus Galanthus of the Amaryllidaceae, bulbous flowering plants, bearing a solitary, pendulous, white, bell-shaped flower that appears at the end of winter.
- v. Australia, slang To steal clothing (especially women's underwear) from a clothesline.
- v. To drop food aid across a wide area from an aircraft.
- v. sexual slang to transfer semen from mouth to mouth while kissing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) A bulbous plant (Galanthus nivalis) bearing white flowers, which often appear while the snow is on the ground. It is cultivated in gardens for its beauty.
WordNet 3.0
- n. common anemone of eastern North America with solitary pink-tinged white flowers
Etymologies
- From snow + drop. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“All the flowers are awesome, but the snowdrop is my favourite of all–simple, complex, fragrant and happy.”
“Botanists disagree on whether the snowdrop is a native British plant or an ornamental flower which was brought in and has now become naturalised.”
“The "snowdrop" of the title is a body that is discovered after the thaws: the idea being that in Russia, you can't take surfaces for granted; nor, the narrator explains in a letter to his fiancée, can he be taken for granted either.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“A "snowdrop" is a corpse that lies buried or hidden in the snow until the thaw; also, in my book, a metaphor for dark, close and ultimately inescapable truths that the narrator, a drifting thirtysomething English lawyer, would prefer not to think about.”
“Many of the little snowdrop shoots are already two or three inches tall, some showing bud.”
“Identifying new cultivars of snowdrop takes an expert eye.”
“We are planning to go to Strathardle tomorrow for snowdrop-and-strawberry planting.”
“I had stayed up all night forgetting: my parents are alive, my brother's girlfriend isn't round, my skin is snowdrop white besides a few brown freckles.”
“The snowdrop crazies are crazy, and they love the smallest difference," Mr. Lyman says.”
“On a February trip to England a few years ago, Downingtown, Pa., horticulturist and snowdrop collector David L. Culp came across a snowdrop with slight yellow markings instead of the typical green ones.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘snowdrop’.
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and ...
Words that, as I see it, have some fond connection to the Alice stories through their creation or particular use by Lewis Carroll. I mean to tie them all together with contexty comments!
alice, daisy-chain, white rabbit, waistcoat-pocket, rabbit-hole, marmalade, antipathy, antipode, curtsey, dinah, tea-time, rat-hole and 232 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 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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Flora
fenugreek, verbena, saxifrage, arbutus, calendula, nasturtium, lobelia, hellebore, rhododendron, philodendron, bellflower, heuchera and 449 more...
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Trees!
mahogany, sequoia, balsa, sandalwood, tamarind, balsam, eucalyptus, birch, willow, buttonwood, evergreen, loblolly and 501 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
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botany for amateurs
edelweiss, heartsease, cherry blossom, crocus, belladonna, hibiscus, baby's breath, snapdragon, black-eyed susan, clover, mulch, peat and 91 more...
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Blue remembered hills
Flora, fauna and other things common in the time and place where I grew up
millipede, dock leaf, snowdrop, nettle, ragwort, oxeye, moss, bindweed, lichen, hay, forget-me-not, bluebell and 62 more...
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❀ ✿ ✺ words for nature
words dealing with nature, flowers, animals, the sea, etc.
gloaming, geodesic, aeolian, gyre, loamy, honeysuckle, musk, love-lies-bleeding, thistle, etiolated, tidal, filament and 37 more...
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Char's Words
sod, baps, pumpkin, melodical, haddock, smorgasboard, tsunami, knell, spidery, beams, salacious, apple and 23 more...
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Just Plain Beautiful
Words that are just pretty. I don't know whether it's because of what they mean that I find them pretty, or because of how they sound, or both. But these are my lovely words.
penumbra, crimson, afterglow, topaz, lyre, velvet, ivory, mist, vespertine, oubliette, aria, crystalline and 31 more...
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Beautiful Words
catharsis, soliloquy, schadenfreude, subterfuge, nevermore, incandescence, syzygy, amaranthine, serendipity, quixotic, lithe, ennui and 52 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for snowdrop.
yarb I read a novel called "Snowdrops" recently, set in Moscow. Wasn't really my cuppa but I love the snowdrop concept. Mar 13, 2013
plaid I just remembered what that reminds me of - the tagline from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, "Det som göms i snö kommer fram vid tö," an old Swedish proverb meaning "what is hidden in snow is revealed at thaw," although obviously not in a morbid way. To me, "snowdrop" is rather... uncreative, as far as kennings go, and to use it as the title of the book seems... let's just say I'm never going to read it. Mar 12, 2013
frogapplause A "snowdrop" is a corpse that lies buried or hidden in the snow until the thaw.
--The Guardian World News. Link here Mar 11, 2013