snowdragon

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English

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Etymology

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From snow +‎ dragon.

Noun

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snowdragon (plural snowdragons)

  1. (rare) A visual representation of a dragon made from snow.
    • 1978, Val Rush, “Of icicles and snowdragons . . . /  . . . The blizzard of ’78”, in Renaissance 1978, Kingston, R.I.: University of Rhode Island, page 70, column 1:
      Of icicles and snowdragons [] Prizes were given for some of the best ice statues, which included a Hobbit and home, a lounging mermaid and a snowy-white dragon.
    • 1992, Isabelle Knockwood, Gillian Thomas, Out of the Depths: The Experiences of Mi’kmaw Children at the Indian Residential School at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Roseway Publishing, →ISBN, page 72:
      Other times, we’d make snowdragons, and snowhorses and a big pile of snowballs.
    • 2005, Sonia Sander, Dragon's Snowy Day, page 8:
      Dragon liked his new smaller snowman but it was still not quite right. So Dragon turned the snowman into a snowdragon. Dragon had a great time playing with his new snowdragon.
    • 2017, Tom Nicoll, There’s a Dragon in My Stocking!, London: Stripes, →ISBN, pages 62–64:
      “Let’s do it,” said Jayden. “We can build snowdragons.” [] Then we spent the next hour: • Building snowmen. • Building snowdragons. (We used old gardening gloves for wings and twigs for claws.)
  2. (rare, fantasy) A dragon associated with snow.
    • 1974, Leigh Brackett, “The Ginger Star”, in The Book of Skaith: The Adventures of Eric John Stark, Garden City, N.Y.: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., published 1976, page 85:
      “This is the northern edge of the darklands,” said Hargoth. “We live all our lives in a state of siege. Anyone, anything, may come. Sometimes the great snowdragons, with the frost white on their wings and their hungry teeth showing. []
    • 1991, Andrew Bill, The Well of Hope, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.: Holland Studio Craft Ltd., →ISBN, page 1:
      In the sky a blizzard of mighty snowdragons wheeled in impatient spirals, their white riders eager to join the fray.
    • 2015, Cressida Cowell, How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury: The Heroic Misadventures of Hiccup the Viking (How to Train Your Dragon; 12), New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 86:
      Mournfully, Barbara the Barbarian stroked the proud back of Fearless, while her six bodyguards tested their arrows and dreamed of riding through the snowy wastes of Barbaria on the backs of their snowdragons, wind streaming through their mustaches, cats meowing happily on their shoulders, flying back, back in time to a village that no longer existed.