snow

English Online Dictionary. What means snow‎? What does snow mean?

English

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Middle English snaw, snou, snow (“snow; accumulation of snow; snowfall; snowstorm; whiteness”), from Old English snāw (“snow”), from Proto-West Germanic *snaiw (“snow”), from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz (“snow”), from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos (“snow”), from *sneygʷʰ- (“to snow”).

The verb is derived from Middle English snouen (“to snow; (figurative) to shower”), from snou, snow (noun) (see above) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs). Displaced Old English snīwan, whence English snew (obsolete).

Verb sense 2.3.2 (“to convince or hoodwink (someone)”) probably refers to a person being blinded or confused by a snowstorm.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: snō, IPA^(key): /snəʊ/, [snəʊ̯]
• (General American) enPR: snō, IPA^(key): /snoʊ/, [snoʊ̯]
• Rhymes: -əʊ

Noun

snow (countable and uncountable, plural snows)

2. (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.
   1. (countable) An instance of the falling of snow (sense 1); a snowfall; also, a snowstorm.
   2. (countable) A period of time when snow falls; a winter.
   3. (countable) An accumulation or spread of snow.
3. Something resembling snow (sense 1) in appearance or colour.
   1. (countable, cooking) A dish or component of a dish resembling snow, especially one made by whipping egg whites until creamy.

      apple snow    lemon snow

   2. (uncountable)
      1. The white colour of snow.
      2. (figurative) Clusters of white flowers.
      4. (figurative) The moving pattern of random dots seen on a radar or television screen, etc., when no transmission signal is being received or when there is interference.

         Synonym: shash

         Near-synonym: static
      5. (figurative) Sea foam; sea spray.
      6. (figurative) Also in the plural: white hair on an (older) person's head.
      7. (figurative, poetic) White marble.
      8. (figurative, slang) Money, especially silver coins.
      9. (figurative, slang, dated) White linen which has been washed.
      10. (chemistry) Chiefly with a descriptive word: a substance other than water resembling snow when frozen; specifically, frozen carbon dioxide.
      11. (marine biology) Clipping of marine snow (“sinking organic detritus in the ocean”).
      12. (originally US, slang) Cocaine; also (less frequently), heroin or morphine.

          Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cocaine

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

snow (third-person singular simple present snows, present participle snowing, simple past snowed or (dialectal) snew, past participle snowed or (dialectal) snown)

2. (intransitive, impersonal) Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have snow (noun sense 1) fall from the atmosphere.
   1. (also figurative) Of a thing: to fall like snow.
3. (transitive)
   1. To cause (something) to fall like snow.
   2. To cover or scatter (a place or thing) with, or as if with, snow.
   3. (figurative)
      1. To cause (hair) to turn white; also, to cause (someone) to have white hair.
      3. (originally US, slang) To convince or hoodwink (someone), especially by presenting confusing information or through flattery.
         1. (poker) To bluff (an opponent) in draw poker by playing a hand which has no value, or by refusing to draw any cards.
      4. (US, slang, chiefly passive voice) To cause (someone) to be under the effect of a drug; to dope, to drug.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Dutch snauw, snaauw, or Low German snau; further etymology uncertain, possibly from Low German snau (“beak”), related to Middle Low German snute (“snout”) (whence English snout), from Proto-West Germanic *snūt (“snout”), from Proto-Germanic *snūtaz (“snout”), possibly imitative.

Noun

snow (plural snows)

1. (nautical, 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.

   Coordinate term: brig

Alternative forms

• snaw

Translations

Notes

References

Further reading

• snow on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• snow (ship) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• snow (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “snow”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• nows, owns, sow'n, sown, wons

Middle English

Alternative forms

• snaw, snowe, snawe, snowȝ, snoȝ, snogh, snou

Etymology

From Old English snāw, from Proto-West Germanic *snaiw, from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz.

Pronunciation

• (Early Middle English, Northern) IPA^(key): /snɑu̯/
• IPA^(key): /snɔu̯/

Noun

snow (plural snowes)

1. snow (frozen water as precipitation, either while falling or once landed)
2. snow-white (a snowy white)
3. The temperature where snow appears.
4. A blanket of snow; a snowing.

Derived terms

• snewen
• snow whit
• snowen
• snowisshe
• snowy

Descendants

• English: snow
• Scots: snaw
• Yola: sneow, sneew, snowe, snow

References

• “snou, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-14.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /esˈno/ [ezˈno]
  • Rhymes: -o
• IPA^(key): /esˈnou/ [ezˈnou̯]
  • Rhymes: -ou

Noun

snow m (uncountable)

1. snowboarding

Derived terms

Yola

Noun

snow

1. Alternative form of sneow

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 96