winters

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of winter.

   Recent winters have been milder than the long-term averages suggest.

   She remembered the bitter winters of her childhood on the prairie.

   Note

   A regular plural formed with -s. It shares its spelling with the verb form and the American adverb. Most uses count seasons, as in mild or bitter winters. The poetic sense of winter as old age and decline gives the plural a literary use as well: counting the cold seasons a life has endured stands in for counting its years.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of winter.

   The herd winters in the sheltered valley below the ridge.

   Each year the flock winters along the warmer southern coast.

   Note

   Two constructions share this form. Without an object, it means spending the season somewhere, and it nearly always takes a place phrase: the herd winters in the valley. With an object, it means keeping something safe through the cold, the way a farmer brings livestock under cover. A learner who knows only the first will be puzzled by the second.

   She winters her geraniums in the cellar.

   The farm winters its cattle in a covered barn.

3. 3
   adverbUS

   During the winter season; in the winter.

   The family heads to the desert winters to escape the northern snow.

   He drives the snowplow winters and mows the highway shoulders summers.

   Oppositesummers

   Note

   American English uses the bare plural as an adverb of habit: they ski winters in the Laurentians. It marks something done every winter rather than once. It follows the verb phrase with no preposition and often pairs with summers. Outside the US, "in winter" or "every winter" is the safer choice. It does not compare, so nothing is done "more winters."

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