# snow

Pronunciation: say "SNOH" US /snoʊ̯/, UK /snəʊ̯/

## Noun

1. Frozen water that falls from the sky as soft white flakes, a fall of it, or the white layer it forms on the ground.
   - Simple: Soft white flakes of frozen water from the sky, a fall of them, or the layer they make on the ground.
   - _By dawn the snow lay a foot deep across the valley._
   - _Heavy snow grounded flights at the airport for two days._
4. The bright, pure white color characteristic of freshly fallen snow.
   - Simple: A pure, bright white color, like that of fresh snow.
   - _The bride chose a dress in soft snow rather than ivory._
   - _The designer paired a charcoal sofa with walls in snow, a crisp white that made the small room feel larger._
5. The shifting pattern of random dots on a television or radar screen when no signal is received or there is interference.
   - Simple: The fuzzy moving dots on a screen when there is no signal.
   - _When the antenna failed, the picture dissolved into snow._
   - _Radar operators dismissed the snow on their scopes as background interference._
6. A street name for cocaine, and less often for heroin or morphine. *(slang)*
   - Simple: An illegal drug, usually cocaine, sometimes heroin or morphine.
   - _He'd blown his entire paycheck on snow by Friday._
   - _Police seized several bags of snow during the raid._
9. A frozen, snow-resembling substance other than water, especially solid carbon dioxide.
   - Simple: A frozen substance that looks like snow but is not water, often frozen carbon dioxide.
   - _Escaping carbon dioxide chilled into a fine snow around the valve._
   - _When she squeezed the extinguisher, a cold blast of carbon dioxide snow shot from the horn and smothered the flames._
10. A dish, or part of a dish, resembling fallen snow, especially a creamy mixture made by whipping egg whites.
   - Simple: A light, fluffy dish, or part of one, that looks like snow, often made with beaten egg whites.
   - _The chef finished the plate with a delicate apple snow._
   - _Victorian cookbooks include many recipes for fruit snows served at dinner._
11. The white or silvery hair on the head of an older person.
   - Simple: The white hair on an older person's head.
   - _Decades at sea had left his beard and hair pure snow._
   - _He ran a hand through the snow at his temples and joked that his grandchildren had put it there._
13. A stretch of time during which snow falls, often standing for a single winter. *(literary)*
   - Simple: A winter, or a season when snow falls.
   - _The old shepherd had seen eighty snows on that mountain, and he could still sense a storm before the sky changed._
   - _The old trapper had lived through more than seventy snows in those mountains and still read the weather better than anyone._
15. A dense cluster of white flowers, suggesting a covering of fallen snow.
   - Simple: A mass of white flowers that looks like fallen snow.
   - _By May the cherry trees produced a snow of pale blossom along the avenue._
   - _The meadow lay under a snow of white clover all through June._
16. The white foam or spray cast up by the sea.
   - Simple: White foam or spray thrown up by the sea.
   - _Each breaker hurled a burst of snow over the harbor wall._
   - _Gulls wheeled through the snow blowing off the storm-driven surf._
17. Marble of a pure white color, used poetically to evoke its snowy brightness. *(literary)*
   - Simple: Pure white marble, prized for its bright, clean color.

## Verb

2. Of the weather, with the dummy subject 'it': to have snow fall from the atmosphere.
   - Simple: To fall from the sky as white frozen flakes, used with the word 'it'.
   - _It snowed all weekend, leaving the trails buried._
   - _They hope it will snow before the ski season opens._
3. To cover or scatter a place or object with snow, or with something resembling it.
   - Simple: To cover or sprinkle something with snow, or with bits that look like snow.
7. To convince or deceive someone, especially by overwhelming them with confusing information or flattery. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To trick or fool someone, often with flattery or confusing talk.
   - _Slick lawyers can snow a jury with technical detail._
   - _She snowed the committee with jargon until they approved the budget._
8. To fall, or make something fall, through the air like snow.
   - Simple: To fall down slowly in many small pieces like snow, or to make things fall that way.
   - _Ticker tape snowed down over the returning heroes._
   - _Embers can snow across a whole field when the wind shifts._
12. To turn someone's hair white, or to give a person a head of white hair.
   - Simple: To make someone's hair turn white.
14. To cause someone to be heavily under the influence of a drug; to dope or sedate them. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: To drug someone so they become very sleepy or hard to wake up.
   - _After the surgery the nurses kept him so snowed on morphine that he barely remembered the first two days._
   - _Staff on the night shift often snow restless residents to keep the ward quiet._

## Noun

18. White linen that has been laundered clean. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Clean white linen that has just been washed.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To bluff an opponent in draw poker by betting on a worthless hand or by declining to draw any cards.
- (noun) Short for marine snow: a steady shower of tiny particles, mostly dead organic matter, sinking from the upper ocean into the deep sea.
- (noun) Money, especially in the form of silver coins.
- (noun) A square-rigged, two-masted sailing vessel of the 17th to 19th centuries, used in both trade and war, with a small trysail mast set just behind the mainmast.

## Origin

The noun comes from Middle English "snaw/snow" and Old English "snāw," going back through Proto-Germanic "*snaiwaz" to the Proto-Indo-European noun "*snóygʷʰos" (snow), from "*sneygʷʰ-" (to snow). The verb formed from the noun plus an infinitive ending, and related words include German "Schnee," Dutch "sneeuw," and Latin "nix."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/snow (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).