wintry
Americanadjective
adjective
-
(esp of weather) of or characteristic of winter
-
lacking cheer or warmth; bleak
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of wintry
First recorded before 900; Old English wintrig (not recorded in Middle English ); see winter, -y 1
Explanation
If it makes you think of winter, it's wintry. Use the adjective wintry to describe a cold, gray January day. The adjective wintry is sometimes spelled wintery. Either way, it describes something that happens in the winter time, or that reminds you of winter in some way. A photograph of your uncle's snow-covered Christmas tree farm shows a wintry scene, and a blustery wind on a February morning will feel wintry. It can also describe a person who is emotionally cool or unfriendly: "Her greeting was wintry, and she refused to shake my hand."
Vocabulary lists containing wintry
Chill Out! Synonyms for "Cold"
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Neighborhood Odes
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Cold
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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.
It's also going to turn quite showery with the potential for some heavy downpours, even turning wintry over high ground.
From BBC • May 11, 2026
He’s just taken a morning stroll in New York with his girlfriend, Dominican architect Ana Amelia Batlle Cabral, and is still defrosting from the wintry chill; he’ll be fully warmed up upon landing in California.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026
Hail and thunder may mix in with some of the showers, which could be wintry over hills and mountains in Scotland.
From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026
The government has credited wintry weather with a recent lull in the disease.
From Barron's • Mar. 30, 2026
When full of flowers they would doubtless look pretty; but now, at the latter end of January, all was wintry blight and brown decay.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
