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sleet

noun, verb — 5 senses

sleet

noun

/sliːt/

Etymology From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”). Doublet of slut.

1

US Pellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.

2

Ireland, Northeastern, UK, US Precipitation in the form of a mixture of rain and snow.

  • Though it never really snows it’s more like horizontal sleet2007, “Is This Christmas?”, performed by The Wombats:
3

Rare A smooth coating of ice formed on ground or other objects by freezing rain.

4

Engineering, Firearms, Government, Military, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Politics, Tools, War, Weaponry The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.

Derived terms
sleetful, sleetless, sleetlike, sleetproof, sleety, thunder sleet
Related terms
freezing rain, graupel, hail

sleet

verb

Etymology From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”). Doublet of slut.

1

Of the weather To be in a state in which sleet is falling.

  • I won't bother going out until it's stopped sleeting.
  • It was dark, it was cold, it was sleeting - dreadful conditions for driving... perfect conditions for an accident.2021 February 24, Greg Morse, “Great Heck: a tragic chain of events”, in RAIL, number 925, page 38:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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