/ snəʊ; NAmE snoʊ/ noun , verb
■ noun
1.
[ U ] small soft white pieces, (called flakes ), of frozen water that fall from the sky in cold weather; this substance when it is lying on the ground :
Snow was falling heavily.
We had snow in May this year.
The snow was beginning to melt.
Children were playing in the snow.
20 cm of snow were expected today.
The snow didn't settle (= stay on the ground) .
Her skin was as white as snow .
2.
snows [ pl. ] ( literary ) an amount of snow that falls in one particular place or at one particular time :
the first snows of winter
the snows of Everest
•
IDIOMS
- as clean, pure, etc. as the driven snow
■ verb
1.
[ v ] when it snows , snow falls from the sky :
It's been snowing heavily all day.
2.
[ vn ] ( NAmE , informal ) to impress sb a lot by the things you say, especially if these are not true or not sincere :
He really snowed me with all his talk of buying a Porsche.
•
IDIOMS
- be snowed in / up
- be snowed under (with sth)
- be snowed up
••
WORD ORIGIN
Old English snāw , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch sneeuw and German Schnee , from an Indo-European root shared by Latin nix , niv- and Greek nipha .