snowdrop
Syllables: snow·dropUK/ˈsnəʊ.dɹɒp//ˈsnoʊ.dɹɑp/
snowdrop noun: any of the 20 species of the genus Galanthus of the Amaryllidaceae, bulbous flowering plants, bearing a solitary, pendulous, white, bell-shaped flower that appears, depending on species, between autumn and late winter or early spring, all native to temperate Eurasia. Also the alternative letter-case form of Snowdrop.
Noun (1)
snowdrop (plural snowdrops)
- Any of the 20 species of the genus Galanthus of the Amaryllidaceae, bulbous flowering plants, bearing a solitary, pendulous, white, bell-shaped flower that appears, depending on species, between autumn and late winter or early spring, all native to temperate Eurasia.
- A flower that first in this sweet garden smiled, / To virgins sacred, and the Snow-drop styled.1722, Thomas Tickell, Kensington Garden, London: Printed for J[acob] Tonson, in the Strand, OCLC 270894685; republished in The Poems of Garth, and Tickell (The British Poets. Including Translations....
- Tufts of primroses grew under the still leafless trees; the hepatica had succeeded the snowdrop.1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter XIII, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 281
Verb
snowdrop (third-person singular simple present snowdrops, present participle snowdropping, simple past and past participle snowdropped)
- To steal clothing (especially women's underwear) from a clothesline.
- MS: There was a lot of snowdropping in those days? / SL: Oh, I've never actually stooped to snowdropping; I used to go into shops. Boosting, man, boosting. But you learn how to survive.1989, Southerly: The Magazine of the Australian English Association, volume 49, Sydney: Australian English Association, →OCLC, page 561
- ‘Snowdropping’ is the business of some poor sods who, often from laundry drying on a clothes line, pinch items of ladies’ underwear, take them away and sniff them.1992, Peter O'Toole, Loitering with Intent: The Early Years, New York, N.Y.: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, page 50
Noun (2) capitalized: Snowdrop
Snowdrop (plural Snowdrops)
- A Royal Air Force police officer.
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:Snowdrop.
Also used as
snowdrop is also the alternative letter-case form of Snowdrop.
snowdrop meaning in Persian
snowdrop in Persian
- plant
- گل برفی
More languagesFewer languages
- Sindhi
- برف جو ڦڙو baraf jo phuro
Examples of snowdrop in a sentence
- White Ladies did not mean snowdrops, by their pretty old English name, ghosts in white cere-clothes, or belles in white tarlatan.1865, Ouida [pseudonym; Marie Louise de la Ramée], “White Ladies”, in Strathmore: A Romance. … In Three Volumes, London: Chapman and Hall...
- [I]t was considered unlucky to decorate a room with cut snowdrops.2016, Gail Harland, Snowdrop (Botanical), London: Reaktion Books, →ISBN:
- It'll be like snowdropping clothes from a clothesline.2011, Tony Hardy, “A Love Story”, in Fifteen Percent Pregnant: A Story of Life, and Love, and IVF, Docklands, Melbourne, Vic.: The Slattery...
Forms of snowdrop
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | snowdrops |
| plural | Snowdrops |
| alternative form | snowdrop |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | snowdrops |
| present participle | snowdropping |
| past participle | snowdropped |
| past | snowdropped |
Origin of snowdrop
From snow + drop.
From the plant snowdrop. Named for the white-topped caps sported by NCOs and warrant officers in the Royal Air Force Police.
Words formed from snowdrop
- snowdropper
- Caucasian snowdrop
- Crimean snowdrop
- giant snowdrop
- snowdrop anemone
- snowdrop tree
- snowdrop windflower
- yellow snowdrop Erythronium spp.)
Phrases with snowdrop
Questions about snowdrop
- What does snowdrop mean?
- Snowdrop means any of the 20 species of the genus Galanthus of the Amaryllidaceae, bulbous flowering plants, bearing a solitary, pendulous, white, bell-shaped flower that appears, depending on species, between autumn and late winter or early spring, all native to temperate Eurasia.
- What is snowdrop in Persian?
- Snowdrop in Persian is گل برفی. See Snowdrop meaning in Persian.
- How do you use snowdrop in a sentence?
- White Ladies did not mean snowdrops, by their pretty old English name, ghosts in white cere-clothes, or belles in white tarlatan.
- What part of speech is snowdrop?
- Snowdrop can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce snowdrop?
- Snowdrop is pronounced /ˈsnəʊ.dɹɒp/ (UK).
- What is the plural of snowdrop?
- The plural of snowdrop is snowdrops.
Words near snowdrop in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: snowdrop (page history and authors); Snowdrop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-snowdrop.ogg, en-au-snowdrop.ogg.
Cite this entry: “snowdrop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/snowdrop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.