sleet
English edit
Etymology edit
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”)).[1] The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sleet (countable and uncountable, plural sleets)
- (chiefly US) Pellets of ice made of mostly frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.
- Synonym: ice pellets
- (chiefly UK, Ireland, Northeastern US) Precipitation in the form of a mixture of rain and snow.
- (rare) A smooth coating of ice formed on ground or other objects by freezing rain.
- (firearms) Part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
ice pellets
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precipitation of rain–snow mixture
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glaze ice formed by freezing rain
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See also edit
References edit
Verb edit
sleet (third-person singular simple present sleets, present participle sleeting, simple past and past participle sleeted)
- (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.
- 2021 February 24, Greg Morse, “Great Heck: a tragic chain of events”, in RAIL, number 925, page 38:
- It was dark, it was cold, it was sleeting - dreadful conditions for driving... perfect conditions for an accident.
Translations edit
to be in a state in which sleet is falling
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References edit
Further reading edit
- sleet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Sleet in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
- AMS Glossary of Meteorology
Anagrams edit
Dutch edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
sleet c (uncountable)
Synonyms edit
Verb edit
sleet
- singular past indicative of slijten
- inflection of sleeën:
Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Noun edit
sleet
- Alternative form of slete