sleet
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
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sleets,
present (3rd person singular)
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sleeted,
past participle, past
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sleeting
present participle
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to send down sleet.
-
to fall as or like sleet.
noun
-
partly melted falling snow or hail or (esp US) partly frozen rain
-
the thin coat of ice that forms when sleet or rain freezes on cold surfaces
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sleetsimple
-
sleetssimple
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have sleetedperfect
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has sleetedperfect
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am sleetingprogressive
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are sleetingprogressive
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is sleetingprogressive
-
have been sleetingperfect progressive
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has been sleetingperfect progressive
Past
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sleetedsimple
-
had sleetedperfect
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was sleetingprogressive
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were sleetingprogressive
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had been sleetingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sleet
First recorded in 1250–1300; (for the noun) Middle English slete; akin to Low German slote, German Schlossen “hail”; (for the verb) Middle English sleten, derivative of the noun
Explanation
Frozen rain, or melty snow, is called sleet. Walking in the snow can be lovely, but walking in sleet is just cold and unpleasant. Sleet is a type of precipitation, and it's also a verb: "Is it starting to sleet out there? Let's stay in and watch TV tonight." In the U.S., sleet is the name for small ice pellets—if you've ever heard the weather person talk about a "wintry mix," it usually includes sleet along with snow and freezing rain. The word dates from the very early 14th century, from a Germanic root.
Vocabulary lists containing sleet
Physical Geography - Introductory
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Weather and Climate - Introductory
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Physical Geography - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Hills across central and the north-west of Scotland could also see sleet and snow during the weekend.
From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026
In some sections, workers struggle to repair sections of netting torn by sleet and ice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
A massive winter storm continues to hit large parts of the country, dumping snow, sleet and freezing rain and leaving hundreds of thousands without power in the South.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2026
The storm is expected to bring widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain to parts of the South on Friday and then spread eastward over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 22, 2026
March was on them like a bully then, raining and blowing between bouts of snow, and sleet, and hail; and indoors things were no better than out.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
Stinging sleets, biting winds, desperately fatigued horses, valiant and persistent battles with snow drifts, icy cold temperatures and everything pertaining to heroism in the Arctics were there.
From Mixed Faces by Roy Norton
During the meal he had much to recount of other sleets and their consequences.
From The Reign of Law; a tale of the Kentucky hemp fields by James Lane Allen
Here the first winter sleets and snows fall and lie, and here the spring frost lingers last unthawed.
From Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
From January's start to close It rains or hails or sleets or snows.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, April 11, 1917 by Various
The heavens have emptied their sleets and snows on his head,—these have made him look only purer, only the more sublime.
From The Choir Invisible by James Lane Allen
It sleeted all morning, but the sun came out for the march.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 21, 2017
“You’re being rained on and snowed on and sleeted on all day long. It makes for misery.”
From Washington Times ● Oct. 23, 2014
Sweated, froze, got sleeted on, rained on, snowed on, and never saw a deer.
From Time Magazine Archive
Sad Mayflower! watched by winter stars, And nursed by winter gales, With petals of the sleeted spars, And leaves of frozen sails!
From Wild Flowers Worth Knowing by Neltje Blanchan
The dividing line between snow and rain still was heavily marked, but it sleeted and our hands were quite numbed.
From The Luck of Thirteen Wanderings and Flight through Montenegro and Serbia by Cora Gordon
The temperature was little above freezing and it was sleeting, members of the team said at the time.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2023
Also, aside from anecdotal evidence of short-lived sleeting in the western suburbs, there was no ice, snow or other frozen precipitation.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2022
“It was raining, sleeting and snowing and I was out getting feed,” he said.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 9, 2015
It was a dreary, sleeting day in Foxborough — perfect weather for a Belichick news conference.
From New York Times ● Jan. 26, 2015
And now it was sleeting, the snow already glistening with ice.
From "The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
