sleet

Meanings

Noun

• Pellets of ice made of mostly frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.
• A mixture of rain and snow.
• A smooth coating of ice formed on ground or other objects by freezing rain.
• Part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.

Verb

• To be in a state in which sleet is falling.

Origin

• From Middle English slete, probably from Old English slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, ultimately derived from or related to Proto-Germanic *slautô. Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot, dialectal German Schloße ("large hailstone").