sleet

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

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”)).[1] The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /sliːt/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːt

Noun

sleet (countable and uncountable, plural sleets)

  1. (chiefly US) Pellets of ice made of mostly frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.
    Synonym: ice pellets
  2. (chiefly UK, Ireland, Northeastern US) Precipitation in the form of a mixture of rain and snow.
  3. (rare) A smooth coating of ice formed on ground or other objects by freezing rain.
    Synonyms: black ice, glaze
  4. (firearms) Part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

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.
    • 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

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

Further reading

Anagrams

Dutch

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /sleːt/
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -eːt

Noun

sleet c (uncountable)

  1. (chiefly Belgium) wear

Synonyms

Verb

sleet

  1. singular past indicative of slijten
  2. inflection of sleeën:
    1. second/third-person singular present indicative
    2. (archaic) plural imperative

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

sleet

  1. Alternative form of slete
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