snow

From Middle English snow, snaw, from Old English snāw (“snow”), from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz (“snow”), from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos (“snow”), from the root *sneygʷʰ-. Cognate with Scots snaw (“snow”), West Frisian snie (“snow”), Dutch sneeuw (“snow”), German Schnee (“snow”), Danish sne (“snow”), Norwegian snø (“snow”), Swedish snö (“snow”), Icelandic snjór (“snow”), Latin nix (“snow”), Russian снег (sneg), Ancient Greek νίφα (nípha), dialectal Albanian nehë (“place where the snow melts”), Sanskrit स्नेह (snéha, “oil, grease”).

• (UK) enPR: snō, IPA^(key): /snəʊ/, [snəʊ̯]
• (US) enPR: snō, IPA^(key): /snoʊ/, [snoʊ̯]

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• Rhymes: -əʊ

snow (countable and uncountable, plural snows)

1. (uncountable) The frozen, crystalline state of water that falls as precipitation.
   • 1928, A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner,

     The wind had dropped, and the snow, tired of rushing around in circles trying to catch itself up, now fluttered gently down until it found a place on which to rest.

2. (uncountable) Any similar frozen form of a gas or liquid.
   • 2008, Neal Asher, "Alien Archaeology"

     Clad in a coldsuit Jael trudged through a thin layer of CO₂ snow ...

3. (uncountable) A shade of the color white.

   snow colour:  

4. (uncountable) The moving pattern of random dots displayed on a television, etc., when no transmission signal is being received.
5. (uncountable, slang) Cocaine.
6. (countable) A snowfall; a blanket of frozen, crystalline water.

   We have had several heavy snows this year.

• (cocaine): blow

snow (third-person singular simple present snows, present participle snowing, simple past and past participle snowed)

1. (impersonal) To have snow fall from the sky.

   It is snowing.

   It started to snow.

2. (colloquial) To hoodwink someone, especially by presenting confusing information.
3. (poker) To bluff in draw poker by refusing to draw any cards.

• In older texts and still in dialects, the past tense snew and past participle snown may be encountered.

• Brunson, Doyle (1978) Super/System: A course in power poker, B&G Publishing Company

From Low German Snaue, or Dutch snaauw, from Low German Snau (“a snout, a beak”).

snow (plural snows)

1. (nautical) A square-rigged vessel, differing from a brig only in that she has a trysail mast close abaft the mainmast, on which a large trysail is hoisted.

• nows, owns, sow'n, sown, wons

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

From Old English snāw, from Proto-Germanic *snaiwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *snóygʷʰos.

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

snow (plural snowes)

1. snow (frozen water as precipitation, either while falling or once landed)

   • a. 1382, John Wycliffe, “Apocalips 1:14”, in Wycliffe's Bible:

     And the heed of hym and his heeris weren whijt, as whijt wolle, and as snow; and the iȝen of hym as flawme of fier.

     And his head and his hairs were white, as white wool, and like snow, and his eyes were like fire's flame.

2. snow-white (a snowy white)
3. The temperature where snow appears.
4. A blanket of snow; a snowing.

• snewen
• snow whit
• snowen
• snowisshe
• snowy

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

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