SNOW

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Snow mean? 

• SNOW (noun)
  The noun SNOW has 4 senses:

1. precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals

2. a layer of snowflakes (white crystals of frozen water) covering the ground

3. English writer of novels about moral dilemmas in academe (1905-1980)

4. street names for cocaine

  Familiarity information: SNOW used as a noun is uncommon.

• SNOW (verb)
  The verb SNOW has 2 senses:

1. fall as snow

2. conceal one's true motives from especially by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end

  Familiarity information: SNOW used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SNOW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

snow; snowfall

Hypernyms ("snow" is a kind of...):

downfall; precipitation (the falling to earth of any form of water (rain or snow or hail or sleet or mist))

Meronyms (parts of "snow"):

flake; snowflake (a crystal of snow)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "snow"):

flurry; snow flurry (a light brief snowfall and gust of wind (or something resembling that))

whiteout (an arctic atmospheric condition with clouds over snow produce a uniform whiteness and objects are difficult to see; occurs when the light reflected off the snow equals the light coming through the clouds)

Derivation:

snow (fall as snow)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A layer of snowflakes (white crystals of frozen water) covering the ground

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("snow" is a kind of...):

layer (a relatively thin sheetlike expanse or region lying over or under another)

Meronyms (substance of "snow"):

flake; snowflake (a crystal of snow)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "snow"):

corn snow (granular snow formed by alternate thawing and freezing)

crud (heavy wet snow that is unsuitable for skiing)

Holonyms ("snow" is a substance of...):

snowball (snow pressed into a ball for throwing (playfully))

Derivation:

snow (fall as snow)

snowy (covered with snow)

snowy (marked by the presence of snow)

Sense 3

Meaning:

English writer of novels about moral dilemmas in academe (1905-1980)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Baron Snow of Leicester; C. P. Snow; Charles Percy Snow; Snow

Instance hypernyms:

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Street names for cocaine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

blow; C; coke; nose candy; snow

Hypernyms ("snow" is a kind of...):

cocain; cocaine (a narcotic (alkaloid) extracted from coca leaves; used as a surface anesthetic or taken for pleasure; can become powerfully addictive)

• SNOW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they snow    ... he / she / it snows   
Past simple: snowed   
Past participle: snowed   
-ing form: snowing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fall as snow

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Context example:

It was snowing all night

Hypernyms (to "snow" is one way to...):

come down; fall; precipitate (fall from clouds)

Sentence frame:

It is ----ing

Sentence example:

It was snowing all day long

Derivation:

snow (precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals)

snow (a layer of snowflakes (white crystals of frozen water) covering the ground)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Conceal one's true motives from especially by elaborately feigning good intentions so as to gain an end

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bamboozle; hoodwink; lead by the nose; play false; pull the wool over someone's eyes; snow

Context example:

He bamboozled his professors into thinking that he knew the subject well

Hypernyms (to "snow" is one way to...):

betray; deceive; lead astray (cause someone to believe an untruth)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

“Well!” he replied, shaking the snow out of his long hair, “I was a-going to turn in somewheers.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The new study tracks changes in snow depth over decades.

(Snow cover on Arctic Sea ice has thinned 30 to 50 percent, NASA)

He stamped them into the snow under him in the wallowing struggle.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It had snowed during the night and he was completely buried.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The blaze there has thawed all the snow from your cloak; by the same token, it has streamed on to my floor, and made it like a trampled street.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The ice was likely deposited as snow long ago.

(Steep Slopes on Mars Reveal Structure of Buried Ice, NASA)

The first of December was a wintry day indeed to them, for a bitter wind blew, snow fell fast, and the year seemed getting ready for its death.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found a blistering hot planet outside our solar system where it "snows" sunscreen.

(Hubble Observes Exoplanet that Snows Sunscreen, NASA)

Because snow and ice reflect more light than vegetation or water, the spring is brighter than the summer or autumn, when there is much less snow and ice.

(Earthshine, NASA)

As soon as day dawned the two children let him out, and he trotted across the snow into the forest.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)