wintry

English

Alternative forms

• wintery

Etymology

From winter +‎ -y; compare Old English wintriġ (a parallel formation).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪnt(ə)ɹɪ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: ʹwĭnt(ə-)rē, IPA^(key): /ˈwɪnt(ə)ɹi/, [ˈwɪɾ̃(ə)ɹi]
• Rhymes: -ɪntɹi
• Hyphenation: win‧try

Adjective

wintry (comparative wintrier, superlative wintriest)

1. Suggestive or characteristic of winter; cold, stormy.

   wintry weather

   • 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 19:

     A faded, and an ancient dragon he was; and many a wintry storm of rain, snow, sleet, and hail, had changed his colour from a gaudy blue to a faint lack-lustre shade of gray.

2. (of precipitation) Containing sleet or snow.

   It will be cloudy overnight, with outbreaks of heavy rain at times. The rain may turn wintry over higher ground.

3. Aged, white-haired.
4. Chilling, cheerless.

   a wintry remark

   • 1934, Frank Richards, The Magnet: The Bounder's Folly:

     He reached the old ruins at last, dim masses of moss-grown masonry in the glimmer of the wintry starlight.

Synonyms

• (suggestive or characteristic of winter): brumal, hibernal, hiemal

Derived terms

• unwintry
• wintrily
• wintriness
• wintry mix
• wintry shower

 

Translations

suggestive or characteristic of winter; cold, stormy

• Arabic: شَتَوِيّ‎ (šatawiyy)
• Armenian: ձմեռային (hy) (jmeṙayin)
• Belarusian: зімо́вы (zimóvy), зі́мні (zímni)
• Bulgarian: мразовит (bg) (mrazovit)
• Cornish: gwavek
• Czech: mrazivý (cs), ledový (cs)
• Esperanto: vintra
• Finnish: talvinen (fi)
• French: hivernal (fr), hibernal (fr)
• Galician: invernal (gl), invernizo (gl)
• Georgian: ზამთრული (zamtruli), ზამთრის (zamtris), საზამთრო (ka) (sazamtro) (nonstandard), სუსხიანი (susxiani), ცივი (civi)
• German: winterlich (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: χειμέριος (kheimérios)

• Hungarian: télies (hu)
• Italian: invernale (it)
• Latin: hiemālis, hibernalis
• Lithuanian: žiemiškas
• Manx: geuragh
• Maori: pūhuka
• Norwegian: vinterlig
• Persian: زمستانی‎ (fa)
• Polish: zimowy (pl)
• Portuguese: hibernal (pt), invernal (pt), invernoso (pt)
• Romanian: iernatic (ro)
• Russian: холо́дный (ru) (xolódnyj), зи́мний (ru) (zímnij)
• Scottish Gaelic: geamhradail, geamhrachail
• Spanish: invernal (es)
• Swahili: -a baridi sana
• Swedish: vintrig (sv)
• Ukrainian: зимо́вий (uk) (zymóvyj)
• Venetian: invernal
• Welsh: gaeafol (cy)

aged, white(-haired etc.)

• Finnish: harmaahapsinen
• Russian: седо́й (ru) (sedój)

chilling, cheerless

• Bulgarian: безрадостен (bg) (bezradosten)
• Hungarian: fagyos (hu)
• Russian: уны́лый (ru) (unýlyj), неприветливый (ru) (neprivetlivyj)
• Welsh: oer (cy), oeraidd (cy)

References

• “wintry”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967