sleet

English

A small amount of slush can be produced from a mixture of rain and snow

Etymology

From Middle English, from a Germanic language. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud).[1] The term is akin to dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sliːt/
  • Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

sleet (countable and uncountable, plural sleets)

  1. (chiefly Britain, Ireland) A mixture of rain and snow.
  2. Rain which freezes before reaching the ground.
  3. (firearms) Part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.

Synonyms

Translations

See also

Verb

sleet (third-person singular simple present sleets, present participle sleeting, simple past and past participle sleeted)

  1. (impersonal, of the weather) To be in a state in which sleet is falling.
    I won't bother going out until it's stopped sleeting.

Usage notes

  1. ↑ Skeat (in German) considers the English word “sleet” to be a loanword from Scandinavia and cites the Norwegian word “sletta.”

Translations

References

Further reading

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sleːt/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

sleet ? (uncountable)

  1. wear

Synonyms

Verb

sleet

  1. singular past indicative of slijten
  2. second- and third-person singular present indicative of sleeën
  3. (archaic) plural imperative of sleeën

Anagrams

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