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• snow
  snow

  noun

  precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air.
• Snow
  Snow

  noun

  Sir Charles Percy C. P. Snow, 1905–80, English novelist and scientist.

snow

¹ American  

[snoh] / snoʊ /

noun

• snow
  plural

1. Meteorology. precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air.

2. these flakes as forming a layer on the ground or other surface.

3. the fall of these flakes or a storm during which these flakes fall.

4. something resembling a layer of these flakes in whiteness, softness, or the like.

   the snow of fresh linen.

5. Literary.

   1. white blossoms.

   2. the white color of snow.

6. Slang. cocaine or heroin.

7. Informal. Usually snows snow tires.

   Most people up here keep their snows on through the end of April.

8. white spots or bands on a television screen caused by a weak signal.

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verb (used without object)

• snows,
  present (3rd person singular)
• snowed,
  past participle,  past
• snowing
  present participle

1. to send down snow; fall as snow.

2. to descend like snow.

verb (used with object)

• snows,
  present (3rd person singular)
• snowed,
  past participle,  past
• snowing
  present participle

1. to let fall as or like snow.

2. Slang.

   1. to make an overwhelming impression on.

      The view really snowed them.

   2. to persuade or deceive.

      She was snowed into believing everything.

verb phrase

1. snow under

   1. to cover with or bury in snow.

   2. to overwhelm with a larger amount of something than can be conveniently dealt with.

   3. to defeat overwhelmingly.

Snow ² American  

[snoh] / snoʊ /

noun

1. Sir Charles Percy C. P. Snow, 1905–80, English novelist and scientist.

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Snow ¹ British  

/ snəʊ /

noun

1. C ( harles ) P ( ercy ), Baron. 1905–80, British novelist and physicist. His novels include the series Strangers and Brothers (1949–70)

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snow ² British  

/ snəʊ /

noun

1. precipitation from clouds in the form of flakes of ice crystals formed in the upper atmosphere

2. a layer of snowflakes on the ground

3. a fall of such precipitation

4. anything resembling snow in whiteness, softness, etc

5. the random pattern of white spots on a television or radar screen, produced by noise in the receiver and occurring when the signal is weak or absent

6. slang cocaine

7. See carbon dioxide snow

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verb

1. (intr; with it as subject) to be the case that snow is falling

2. (tr; usually passive, foll by over, under, in, or up) to cover or confine with a heavy fall of snow

3. to fall or cause to fall as or like snow

4. slang (tr) to deceive or overwhelm with elaborate often insincere talk See snow job

5. to be overwhelmed, esp with paperwork

snow Scientific  

/ snō /

1. Precipitation that falls to earth in the form of ice crystals that have complex branched hexagonal patterns. Snow usually falls from stratus and stratocumulus clouds, but it can also fall from cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds.

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snow Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing snow

• pure as the driven snow

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• snowless
  adjective
• snowlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• snow
  plural

Participles

• snowing
  present
• snowed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• snow
  simple
• snows
  simple
• have snowed
  perfect
• has snowed
  perfect
• am snowing
  progressive
• are snowing
  progressive
• is snowing
  progressive
• have been snowing
  perfect progressive
• has been snowing
  perfect progressive

Past

• snowed
  simple
• had snowed
  perfect
• was snowing
  progressive
• were snowing
  progressive
• had been snowing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will snow
  simple
• will have snowed
  perfect
• will be snowing
  progressive
• will have been snowing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of snow¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun snou(e), Old English snāw; cognate with Dutch sneeuw, German Schnee, Old Norse snǣr, Gothic snaiws, Latin nix (genitive nivis ), Greek níps (accusative nípha ), Old Church Slavonic sněgŭ; verb derivative of the noun

Origin of Snow²

First recorded in 1665–75

Explanation

The fluffy white precipitation that falls from the sky in the winter is snow. Many winter sports, like skiing and sledding, require snow. Scientifically, snow is water vapor that freezes and forms ice crystals. You probably think of snow as the cold white stuff that can be formed into balls and thrown. Snow is a verb, too: "I love to watch it snow." Informally, to snow is also to hide your motives in order to trick someone: "She planned to snow her sister into thinking the cookies were all gone."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

snow Snow snows snowed snowing

On Greenland, narrow dark markings appear in places where liquid water is present on top of ice and snow.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

An hour after that, snow falling heavily, an announcement comes that the meat shipment has been canceled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

So he’ll trust the stores in New York or maybe receive recommendations from teammates once the snow comes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026

He took a photo of them on the slope, small silhouettes against the snow.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

The walking was at once more difficult here, the going more arduous, the snow deeper, but at least we weren’t dragging along with hundreds of others, being endlessly held up.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

Brittany Snow recently said to me, “Acting for me is being excited to be asked back.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026

Elsewhere, chain gelato brand Snowflake makes a sweetcorn-flavoured "Snow Cob", while more mainstream, high-end supermarkets and chocolate brands are selling corn kernels covered in chocolate.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

Lawmakers said their review of unredacted files showed it was the same woman Epstein had directed to buy a Snow White costume weeks earlier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

They are the people supporting Disneyland’s parades, shows and character operations, including some who perform as iconic characters such as Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Cinderella.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Snow had drifted into his nostrils in a cruel parody of breath, but his ice-filmed eyes were open, staring at something Torak couldn’t see: something that was cradled in the crook of his dead arm.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

They predicted the reservoirs will keep setting records every day until snows come and bring the next seasonal pulse of runoff.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

Or as in the Northeast today, when it snows it blizzards.

From Barron's ● Feb. 24, 2026

Recent snows have also led to evacuations of several communities in Switzerland and northern Italy, as well as power outages and a train derailment at Goppenstein in the south-western Swiss canton of Valais.

From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026

This is a comic epic of bursting balloons and black eyes, tipsy aunts and tottering uncles, an errant mouse and driving snows.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

I watch the snows fall on the ledge outside my window.

From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins

Tuesday may sound a long way away but this time last week I would never have thought that this week we would still be snowed in.

From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2026

Although it snowed in Cleveland and Chicago this week and New Yorkers bundled up, gas traders don’t expect enough sustained cold weather to eat into supplies until next month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025

Being snowed in automatically meant we were going to have a cozy, jolly but mostly drunk-off-of-hot-chocolate time.

From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2024

The roads were all completely iced over, snowed over and closed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2024

Qn the fortieth day and the two succeeding we were snowed in by a blizzard.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Lime also faces a seasonal risk: Put simply, scooters and bikes are a lot less popular when its snowing or raining, and more in demand when it’s warm and dry outside.

From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026

In other words, Rakoff isn’t a judge you should try snowing with technological flapdoodle.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2026

“Shortly after, the boat rolled over to starboard, and the passengers entered the water. The survivor recalled that it started snowing after the boat rolled over while the people were in the water.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2025

"I was struck by the fact that it's constantly snowing, as if Russia has only one season. In reality, we have all four."

From BBC ● May 2, 2025

It was snowing again, soft flakes drifting down out of the blackness.

From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

Related Words

• blizzard
• snowstorm