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.
00:10
Sleet
is one of our favorite verbs.
So is kibitz. Does it mean:
| to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly. |
| chat, to converse |
Origin:
1250–1300; (noun) Middle English slete; akin to Low German slote, German Schlossen hail; (v.) Middle English sleten, derivative of the noun
1250–1300; (noun) Middle English slete; akin to Low German slote, German Schlossen hail; (v.) Middle English sleten, derivative of the noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To sleet
Collins
World English Dictionary
sleet (sliːt) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | partly melted falling snow or hail or (esp US) partly frozen rain |
| 2. | chiefly (US) the thin coat of ice that forms when sleet or rain freezes on cold surfaces |
| —vb | |
| 3. | (intr) to fall as sleet |
| [C13: from Germanic; compare Middle Low German slōten hail, Middle High German slōze, German Schlossen hailstones] | |
| 'sleety | |
| —adj | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
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 early 14c.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
| sleet (slēt) Pronunciation Key
Precipitation that falls to earth in the form of frozen or partially frozen raindrops, often when the temperature is near the freezing point. Sleet usually leaves the cloud in the form of snow that melts as it passes through warm layers of air during its descent. The raindrops and partially melted snowflakes then freeze in the colder layers nearer the earth before striking the ground as pellets of ice, which usually bounce. By contrast,hail forms by the accumulation of layers of ice on the hailstone as it moves up and down in the cloud, and hailstones can become much larger than sleet pellets. The word sleet is also used informally to describe a mixture of snow, sleet, and rain. |
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
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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