snowing

Verb

snow (third-person singular simple present snows, present participle snowing, simple past snowed or (dialectal) snew, past participle snowed or (dialectal) snew or (dialectal) snown)

1. (impersonal, intransitive) Preceded by the dummy subject it: to have snow (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1) fall from the atmosphere.
   • It is snowing. It started to snow.
   1. (also, figuratively, impersonal, intransitive) Of a thing: to fall like snow.
      • Time on this Head has ſnovv’d, yet ſtill ’tis borne / Aloft; nor thinks but on another’s Grave.1743, [Edward Young], “Night the Fifth. The Relapse. […]”, in The Complaint. Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality. Night the Fifth, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], and sold by M[ary]...
2. (transitive) To cause (something) to fall like snow.
   • [A]t the ſetting out of a verie ſtatelie tragedie named Dido, wherein the quéenes banket (with Eneas narration of the deſtruction of Troie) was liuelie deſcribed in a marchpaine patterne, there was alſo a goodlie ſight of hunters with full crie of a kennell of hounds, Mercurie and Iris deſcending...1587 January, Raphael Holinshed, “The Chronicles of England, from the Yeare of Our Lord 1576, where Raphaell Holinshed left; Supplied and Continued to this Present Yeare 1586: […]”, in The Third...
3. (transitive) To cover or scatter (a place or thing) with, or as if with, snow.
   • Even the Horſe wee ride / Vnſhod, would founder, who takes greateſt pride, / When the moſt curb'd, and playing with the bit, / Hee ſnowes the ground [with froth from his mouth], and doth the Spurre forgit.1635 November 8 (first performance; Gregorian calendar; published 1635), Thomas Heywood, “Londini Sinus Salutis, or, Londons Harbour of Health, and Happinesse. […]. The Speech of Mars.”, in The...
4. (figuratively, transitive) To cause (hair) to turn white; also, to cause (someone) to have white hair.
   • Ah, courteous England, thy kinde arms I ſee / VVide-stretched out to ſaue and vvelcom me. / Thou (tender Mother) vvilt not ſuffer Age / To ſnovve my locks in Forrein Pilgrimage: […]1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second Weeke, […]. Noah. […].] The Colonies. The III. Part of the II. Day of the II. Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His...
5. (figuratively, slang, transitive) To convince or hoodwink (someone), especially by presenting confusing information or through flattery.
   • […] I concluded that the best thing would be to try to snow him a little, so I said that I had heard many marvelous reports about the Wariri. As I couldn't think of any details just then, I was just as glad that he didn't ask me to be specific.1959 February 23, Saul Bellow, chapter XI, in Henderson the Rain King […], New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →OCLC, page 133

See all 27 meanings of snow