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sleet

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sleet

  [sleet]
Use sleet in a Sentence
–noun
1. precipitation in the form of ice pellets created by the freezing of rain as it falls (distinguished from hail ).
2. glaze (def. 17).
3. Chiefly British. a mixture of rain and snow.
–verb (used without object)
4. to send down sleet.
5. to fall as or like sleet.
Origin:
1250–1300; (n.) ME slete; akin to LG slote, G Schlossen hail; (v.) ME sleten, deriv. of the n.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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sleet   (slēt)   
n.  

  1. Precipitation consisting of generally transparent frozen or partially frozen raindrops.

  2. A mixture of rain and snow or hail.

  3. A thin icy coating that forms when rain or sleet freezes, as on trees or streets.

intr.v.   sleet·ed, sleet·ing, sleets
To shower sleet.

[Middle English slete, from Old English *slēte.]
sleet'y adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

sleet 
c.1300, slete, either from an unrecorded O.E. word or via M.H.G. sloz, M.L.G. sloten (pl.) "hail," from P.Gmc. *slautjan- (cf. dial. Norw. slutr, Dan. slud, Swed. sloud "sleet"), from root *slaut-. The verb is attested from c.1325.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia

sleet

globular, generally transparent ice pellets that have diameters of 5 mm (0.2 inch) or less and that form as a result of the freezing of raindrops or the freezing of mostly melted snowflakes. Larger particles are called hailstones (see hail). Sleet may occur when a warm layer of air lies above a below-freezing layer of air at the Earth's surface. In Great Britain and in some parts of the United States, a mixture of rain and snow is called sleet, and the term has sometimes been used to identify the clear ice on objects that is more correctly known as glaze.

Learn more about sleet with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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