snow
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: snō
ipa: /snəʊ̯/
enpr: snō
ipa: /snoʊ̯/
rhymes: -əʊ
Forms: form: snows
form: snowing
form: snowed
form: snew
form: snowed
form: snew
form: snown
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: snow
form: snow
form: snowed
form: snow
form: snowest
form: snowed
form: snowedst
form: snows
form: snoweth
form: snowed
form: snow
form: snowed
form: snow
form: snowed
form: snow
form: -
form: snowing
form: snowed
Etymology: 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.
Cognates
* Scots snaw (“snow”)
* Yola sneew, sneow, snow, snowe (“snow”)
* North Frisian Sne, snii, snä (“snow”)
* Saterland Frisian Snee (“snow”)
* West Frisian snie (“snow”)
* Alemannic German schnee, schnei, schnia, schné, schnìj (“snow”)
* Bavarian schnea, sghneab (“snow”)
* Cimbrian snea, snèa (“snow”)
* Dutch snee, sneeuw (“snow”)
* German Schnee (“snow”)
* Limburgish Schnië, snieë (“snow”)
* Luxembourgish Schnéi (“snow”)
* Mòcheno schnea (“snow”)
* Vilamovian śnej, šnej, śnyi (“snow”)
* Yiddish שניי (shney, “snow”)
* Danish sne (“snow”)
* Elfdalian sniųo (“snow”)
* Faroese snjógvur (“snow”)
* Icelandic snjár, snjór, snær (“snow”)
* Norwegian Bokmål sne, snø (“snow”)
* Norwegian Nynorsk snjo, snø (“snow”)
* Swedish snö (“snow”)
* Gothic 𐍃𐌽𐌰𐌹𐍅𐍃 (snaiws, “snow”)
* Albanian nehë (“place where the snow melts”)
* Latin nix (“snow”)
* Ancient Greek νίψ (níps, “snow”)
* Russian снег (sneg, “snow”)
* Sanskrit स्नेह (snéha, “oil, grease”)
Senses: examples: text: It is snowing.    It started to snow.
text: In wynter whan it ſnoweth it is good ſyttynge by a good fyre: […]
ref: 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Verbes”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio ccclxv, verso, column 2; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge. Chapter 16.”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume III, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 21:
text: 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!
ref: Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!, New York, N.Y.: Edwin H. Morris & Company, 1945, →OCLC
glosses: Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have snow (noun sense 1) fall from the atmosphere.
examples: text: Time on this Head has ſnovv’d, yet ſtill ’tis borne / Aloft; nor thinks but on another’s Grave.
ref: 1743, [Edward Young], “Night the Fifth. The Relapse. […]”, in The Complaint. Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality. Night the Fifth, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 37:
text: 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.
ref: 1613, Thomas Heywood, The Brazen Age, […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, […], →OCLC, Act II, signature [C4], verso:
text: 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.
ref: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Palace of Art”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 145:
text: 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.
ref: 1894, S[abine] Baring-Gould, “Beggar-my-neighbour”, in The Queen of Love […], volume I, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 153:
glosses: Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have snow (noun sense 1) fall from the atmosphere.
Of a thing: to fall like snow.
examples: text: [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.
ref: 1587 January, Raphael Holinshed, “The Chronicles of England, from the Yeare of Our Lord 1576, where Raphaell Holinshed left; Supplied and Continued to this Present Yeare 1586: […]”, in The Third Volume of Chronicles, Beginning at Duke William the Norman, Commonlie Called the Conqueror; […], 2nd edition, volume III, London: […] [Henry Denham] […] at the expenses of Iohn Harison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, →OCLC, page 1355:
text: Ride ten thouſand daies and nights, / Till age ſnovv vvhite haires on thee, […]
ref: 1590s (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “Song [Go and Catch a Falling Star]”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 196:
text: Let the skie raine Potatoes: let it thunder, to the tune of Greene-ſleeues, haile-kiſſing Comfits, and ſnovv Eringoes: […]
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], page 59, column 1:
text: [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; […]
ref: c. 1607–1608 (date written), George Chapman, “The Tragedie of Charles, Duke of Byron”, in The Conspiracie, and Tragedie of Charles Duke of Byron, Marshall of France. […], [London]: […] G[eorge] Eld for Thomas Thorppe, […], published 1608, →OCLC, Act V, signature [Q4], recto:
text: [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.
ref: 1827 October 1, [Walter Scott], “Introduction”, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, pages xxi–xxii:
text: [H]e started on his feet, / Tore the king's letter, snow'd it down, and rent / The wonder of the loom thro' warp and woof / From skirt to skirt; […]
ref: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part I”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 15:
text: If one poor flower of thanks to thee / Be truly given, / All night then snowest down to me / Lilies of heaven!
ref: 1864 October, John Townsend Trowbridge, “Service”, in The Vagabonds, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1869, →OCLC, stanza 9, page 67:
text: A sweep of chilly air passed by, rustling all the leaves and snowing the flaky ashes broadcast about the fire.
ref: 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XVI, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 140:
glosses: To cause (something) to fall like snow.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1635 November 8 (first performance; Gregorian calendar; published 1635), Thomas Heywood, “Londini Sinus Salutis, or, Londons Harbour of Health, and Happinesse. […]. The Speech of Mars.”, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood […], volume IV, London: John Pearson […], published 1874, →OCLC, page 295:
text: 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— […]
ref: a. 1823 (date written), Homer, “Hymn to Mercury. Translated from the Greek of Homer.”, in Percy Bysshe Shelley, transl., edited by Mary W[ollstonecraft] Shelley, Posthumous Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John and Henry L[eigh] Hunt, […], published 1824, →OCLC, stanza XCIV, page 326:
glosses: To cover or scatter (a place or thing) with, or as if with, snow.
examples: text: 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: […]
ref: 1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second Weeke, […]. Noah. […].] The Colonies. The III. Part of the II. Day of the II. Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC, page 355:
glosses: To cause (hair) to turn white; also, to cause (someone) to have white hair.
examples: text: […] 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.
ref: 1959 February 23, Saul Bellow, chapter XI, in Henderson the Rain King […], New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, page 133:
text: She'll expose you / When she snows you / 'Cause she knows you
ref: 1974 (date written), Donna Weiss, Jackie DeShannon, “Bette Davis Eyes”, in Mistaken Identity, performed by Kim Carnes, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: EMI America Records, published 10 March 1981:
glosses: To convince or hoodwink (someone), especially by presenting confusing information or through flattery.
examples: text: [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.
ref: 1999 May, Mason Malmuth, “Free Bets and Other Topics”, in Gambling Theory and Other Topics, Las Vegas, Nev.: [Creel Printers for] Two Plus Two Publishing, →ISBN, part 2 (Theory in Practice), page 84:
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: To convince or hoodwink (someone), especially by presenting confusing information or through flattery.
To bluff (an opponent) in draw poker by playing a hand which has no value, or by refusing to draw any cards.
examples: text: She looked snowed, weaved around funny, didn't seem to know much what was going on.
ref: 1934 July, Raymond Chandler, “Smart-Aleck Kill”, in The Smell of Fear, London: Hamish Hamilton, published December 1965, →OCLC, section VII, page 202:
qualifier: chiefly passive voice
glosses: To cause (someone) to be under the effect of a drug; to dope, to drug.
Derived terms: word: besnow
word: buy when it snows, sell when it goes
word: it's snowing
word: let it snow
word: oversnow
word: snow down
word: snowed
word: snow in
word: snowing
word: snow out
word: snow over
word: snow under
word: snow up
Related terms: sense: See also
word: avalanche
sense: See also
word: blizzard
sense: See also
word: Cascade concrete
sense: See also
word: chionodoxa
sense: See also
word: firn
sense: See also
word: freezing rain
sense: See also
word: frost
sense: See also
word: graupel
sense: See also
word: hail
sense: See also
word: igloo
sense: See also
word: nieve penitente
sense: See also
word: nival
sense: See also
word: niveous
sense: See also
word: penitentes
sense: See also
word: quinzee
sense: See also
word: quinzhee
sense: See also
word: rain
sense: See also
word: sastruga
sense: See also
word: sastrugi
sense: See also
word: zastruga
sense: See also
word: zastrugi
sense: See also
word: skiing
sense: See also
word: sleet
sense: See also
word: slush
sense: See also
word: snizzle
sense: See also
word: the old woman is plucking her goose
sense: See also
word: yukigassen