snow

noun

1. (uncountable)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.

   “Snow is white, / And lieth in the dike. And every man lets it lye.”

   “Didſt thou but knovv the inly touch of Loue, / Thou vvouldſt as ſoone goe kindle fire vvith ſnovv / As ſeeke to quench the fire of Loue vvith vvords.”

   “And vvho doth lead them but a paltrey fellovv,? / Long kept in Brittaine at our mothers coſt, / A milkeſopt, one that neuer in his life / Felt ſo much colde as ouer ſhooes in ſnovv: […]”

   “The top of this Peake [Teide on Tenerife] or Pyramide […] by reaſon of their rare height and affinitie vvith the middle Aerie Region are ſeldome vvithout Snovv.”

   “He [Ben Jonson] vvas not onely a profeſſed Imitator of Horace, but a learned Plagiary of all the others; you track him every vvhere in their Snovv: […]”

2. (countable)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.”

   “At Chriſtmas I no more deſire a Roſe, / Then vviſh a Snovv in Mayes nevv fangled ſhovves: / But like of each thing that in ſeaſon grovves.”

   “[H]ovv calm he ſits at eaſe, / Mid ſnovvs of paper, and fierce hail of peaſe?”

   “The blasts of autumn drive the winged seeds / Over the earth,—next come the snows, and rain, / And frosts, and storms, which dreary winter leads / Out of his Scythian cave, a savage train; […]”

   “[G]reat white tassels, swinging from every tree in the breeze which swept down the glade, tossed in their faces a fragrant snow of blossoms, and glittering drops of perfumed dew.”

3. (countable)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.

   “They sang, that by his native bowers / He stood, in the last moon of flowers, / And thirty snows had not yet shed / Their glory on the warrior's head; […]”

   “The path by which we twain did go, / Which led by tracts that pleased us well, / Thro' four sweet years arose and fell, / From flower to flower, from snow to snow: […]”

4. (countable)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.

   “VVhen VVinter ſhuts the Seas, and fleecy Snovvs / Make Houſes vvhite, ſhe to the Merchant goes: / Rich Cryſtals of the Rock She takes up there, / Huge Agat Vaſes, and old China VVare: […]”

   “This River [the Rubicon] is not ſo contemptible as it is generally repreſented, and vvas much increas'd by the melting of the Snovvs vvhen [Julius] Cæſar paſs'd it, according to Lucan.”

   “It must be so—I will arise and waken / The multitude, and like a sulphurous hill [volcano], / Which on a sudden from its snows has shaken / The swoon of ages, it shall burst and fill / The world with cleansing fire: […]”

   “[H]is mind at least will defy your influence, as the snows of that Mount Blanc which we saw together, shrink not under the heat of the summer sun.”

   “[I]t well may happen yonder, where the far snows blanch / Mute Mont Blanc, that who stands near them sees and hears an avalanche,— […]”

5. (countable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.

   “apple snow    lemon snow”

6. (countable, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.

   “The daughters of the land were beautiful, with blue eyes and fair hair, and bosoms of snow, […]”

7. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.

   “A scent of pine-wood from a tent-like pile of planks outside the open door mingled itself with the scent of the elder-bushes which were spreading their summer snow close to the open window opposite; […]”

8. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.

   “Near-synonym: static”

   “I took my TV over on the first trip. I got a beauty. It's four years old, color, but when I had a little snow and asked the repairman to come in, he told me never, never turn this set in for a new one. They don't make them like this anymore, he said. He got rid of the snow and all he charged me was two dollars.”

9. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.
10. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.

    “Indeed, to the laſt days of her life, my Lady Viſcounteſs had the comfort of fancying herſelf beautiful, and perſiſted in blooming up to the very midſt of winter, painting roſes on her cheeks long after their natural ſeaſon, and attiring herſelf like ſummer though her head was covered with ſnow.”

11. (countable, figuratively, poetic, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.

    “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.”

12. (countable, figuratively, slang, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.
13. (countable, dated, figuratively, slang, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.
14. (countable, uncountable)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.”

15. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.

    “Lower down, in the 95 per cent of the ocean where light does not penetrate, many living things feed on ‘marine snow’, the steady drizzle of particles of dead matter, whitish in colour, gradually sinking from the euphotic zone above. Other animals then feed on the ‘snow’ eaters.”

16. (slang, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.

    “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.”

17. (countable, slang, uncommon, uncountable)Something resembling snow (etymology 1, noun sense 1) in appearance or color.
18. (historical)A square-rigged sailing vessel similar to a brig formerly used as a warship, with a foremast, a mainmast, and a trysail mast immediately abaft (behind) the mainmast.

    “An ESTIMATE made of the Annual Expence of a Snow of 120 Tons, and 48 Men (Officers included) Mounting 12 Carriage Guns, beſides Swivels.”

verb

1. (impersonal, intransitive)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.”

   “In wynter whan it ſnoweth it is good ſyttynge by a good fyre: […]”

   “Then there was the watch with staff and lanthorn crying the hour, and the kind of weather; and those who woke up at his voice and turned them round in bed, were glad to hear it rained, or snowed, or blew, or froze, for very comfort's sake.”

   “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!”

2. (also, figuratively, impersonal, intransitive)Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have snow (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1) fall from the atmosphere.

   “Time on this Head has ſnovv’d, yet ſtill ’tis borne / Aloft; nor thinks but on another’s Grave.”

   “She [Diana] hath ſent (to plague vs) a huge ſauadge Boare, / Of an vn-meaſured height and magnitude. / […] / His briſtles poynted like a range of pikes / Ranck't on his backe: his foame ſnovves vvhere he feeds / His tuskes are like the Indian Oliphants.”

   “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.”

   “Then all at once he saw, staring him in the face, a knave of spades. The shock was too great for even his iron nerves; his hand trembled, his fingers involuntarily relaxed, and away shot the cards, flying over the platform and snowing upon the audience in the front rows.”

3. (transitive)To cause (something) to fall like snow.

   “[A]t the ſetting out of a verie ſtatelie tragedie named Dido, wherein the quéenes banket (with Eneas narration of the deſtruction of Troie) was liuelie deſcribed in a marchpaine patterne, there was alſo a goodlie ſight of hunters with full crie of a kennell of hounds, Mercurie and Iris deſcending and aſcending from and to an high place, the tempeſt wherein it hailed ſmall confects, rained roſewater, and ſnew an artificiall kind of ſnow, all ſtrange, maruellous, ⁊ [and] abundant.”

   “Ride ten thouſand daies and nights, / Till age ſnovv vvhite haires on thee, […]”

   “Let the skie raine Potatoes: let it thunder, to the tune of Greene-ſleeues, haile-kiſſing Comfits, and ſnovv Eringoes: […]”

   “[A]s a Sauadge Bore that (hunted longe, / Aſſayld and ſet vp) vvith his onely eyes, / Svvimming in fire keepes of the baying hounds, / Though ſuncke himſelfe, yet houlds his anger vp, / And ſnovves it forth in foame; […] So fares the furious Duke, and vvith his lookes, / Doth teach death horrors; […]”

   “[I]n the situation of the theatrical mechanist, who, when the white paper which represented his shower of snow was exhausted, continued the storm by snowing brown [paper], I drew on my memory as long as I could, and, when that failed, eked it out with invention.”

4. (transitive)To cover or scatter (a place or thing) with, or as if with, snow.

   “Even the Horſe wee ride / Vnſhod, would founder, who takes greateſt pride, / When the moſt curb'd, and playing with the bit, / Hee ſnowes the ground [with froth from his mouth], and doth the Spurre forgit.”

   “There are three Fates, three virgin Sisters, who / Rejoicing in their wind-outspeeding wings, / Their heads with flour snowed over white and new, / Sit in a vale round which Parnassus flings / Its circling skirts— […]”

5. (figuratively, transitive)To cause (hair) to turn white; also, to cause (someone) to have white hair.

   “Ah, courteous England, thy kinde arms I ſee / VVide-stretched out to ſaue and vvelcom me. / Thou (tender Mother) vvilt not ſuffer Age / To ſnovve my locks in Forrein Pilgrimage: […]”

6. (figuratively, slang, transitive)To convince or hoodwink (someone), especially by presenting confusing information or through flattery.

   “[…] I concluded that the best thing would be to try to snow him a little, so I said that I had heard many marvelous reports about the Wariri. As I couldn't think of any details just then, I was just as glad that he didn't ask me to be specific.”

   “She'll expose you / When she snows you / 'Cause she knows you”

7. (figuratively, slang, transitive)To convince or hoodwink (someone), especially by presenting confusing information or through flattery.

   “[T]he Adventurer knew that despite what [Mike] Caro had said, there was a good chance that he was "snowing" (playing a hand that had no value and could win only if his opponent threw his cards away). Notice that this creates a dilemma for the Adventurer. If he bets and Caro is on a snow, he will lose a bet, but if he checks and his opponent is not on a snow, he also will lose a bet.”

8. (US, figuratively, slang, transitive)To cause (someone) to be under the effect of a drug; to dope, to drug.

   “She looked snowed, weaved around funny, didn't seem to know much what was going on.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Done because the alternate outcome is very unlikely to pass.

name

1. A surname.