besnow

English

Alternative forms

• besnew

Etymology

From Middle English besnewen, from Old English besnīwian (“to cover with snow”); equivalent to be- +‎ snow. Cognate with Dutch besneeuwen (“to snow, snow in”), German beschneien (“to cover with snow”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -əʊ

Verb

besnow (third-person singular simple present besnows, present participle besnowing, simple past and past participle besnowed) (transitive)

1. To snow on; to cover with snow, or as if with snow.
2. To scatter like snow, or as if like snow.
3. To whiten with snow, or as with snow.
   • 1640 (first publication), Thomas Carew, “Obsequies to the Lady Anne Hay”, in Poems, with a Maske, […], 3rd edition, London: […] H[umphrey] M[oseley] and are to be sold by J[ohn] Martin, […], published 1651, →OCLC, page 91:

     Virgins of equall birth, [...] / Shall draw thy picture, and record thy life; / One ſhall enſphere thine eyes, another ſhall / Impearl thy teeth[,] a third thy white and ſmall / Hand ſhall beſnow, a fourth incarnadine / Thy roſie cheek, [...]

Derived terms

• besnowed

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “besnow”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• Bownes, bownes