▪ I. sleet, n.1
(sliːt)
Forms: 4 slet(h, 4–6 slete (4 slethe, sclete), 5–7 sleete, 4– sleet (6 Sc. sleit); 6 slyte, 8 slite.
[Of doubtful origin, but prob. representing OE. (Anglian) *slét (:—sléatj-), related to MLG. slôte (LG. slôte, slâte), MHG. slôze, slôz (G. schlosse) hail. Norw. dial. sletta, Da. slud, and Icel. slydda have the sense of ‘sleet’, but it is difficult to associate any of these phonetically with the Eng. word.]
1. a. Snow which has been partially thawed by falling through an atmosphere of a temperature a little above freezing-point, usually accompanied by rain or snow.
| c 1300 Land of Cokayne 39 in E.E.P. (1862) 157 Þer n'is dunnir, slete, no hawle. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 729 Ner slayn wyth þe slete he sleped in his yrnes. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1220 Dido, Doun cam the reyn with hayl & slet so faste. c 1460 Towneley Plays xiii. 61 Now in snaw, now in slete, When my shone freys to my fete. 1533 Bellenden Livy ii. xxvi. (S.T.S.) I. 236 Incontinent fell sa hevy tempest with slete and snawis out of þe are, þat he was empeschet. 1553–4 Lett., Doc., etc. Cambridge (1838) 228 On Sonday frost and som slyte. 1635 Swan Spec. M. v. §2 (1643) 156 We have sometimes sleet; which is snow and rain together. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 564 Perpetual Sleet, and driving Snow, Obscure the Skies. 1704 Phil. Trans. XXV. 1695 Some slite in the night. 1784 Cowper Task v. 140 Arrowy sleet, Skin-piercing volley, blossom-bruising hail. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. ix. 331 A tremendous storm of sleet and hail gathered from the east. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 83 The philosopher standing aside in the shower of sleet under a wall. |
| transf. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. clxxxvi, The midmost Battles,..Who view, far off, the storm of falling Sleet; And hear their Thunder ratling in the wind. 1671 Milton P.R. iii. 324 He saw..How quick they wheel'd, and..shot Sharp sleet of arrowie showers against the face Of thir pursuers. |
b. A storm or shower of sleet. rare.
| 1728–46 Thomson Spring 20 Winter..bids his driving sleets Deform the day delightless. 1880 W. Newton Serm. for Boys & Girls (1882) 225 A sleet had fallen the day before and the pavements were very slippery. |
2. attrib., as sleet air, sleet blast, sleet-flake, sleet-gust, sleet-shower, sleet storm, etc.; sleet-bound adj.
| 1782 J. Trumbull M'Fingal iii. 65 He glitter'd to the Western ray Like Sleet-bound trees in wintry skies. 1832 Wilson Noctes Ambr. Feb., The Wellington Arms is by no means an uncomfortable howf in a sleet-squash. 1866 Whipple Character & Char. Men 34 The sharp sleet air is invigorating. 1877 Daily News 27 Dec. 6/1 The Russians are there, out in the sleet blasts. 1888 Lees & Clutterbuck B.C. 1887 xxiv. (1892) 266 The cold dark clouds..burst upon us in a furious sleet storm. Ibid. xxix. 327 In a blinding sleet-shower. 1928 Blunden Retreat 48 Where the lashed sleet-gust foams, buffeting and blinding. 1929 C. Day Lewis Transitional Poem ii. 34 When bullying April bruised mine eyes With sleet-bound appetites and crude Experiments of green. |
▪ II. † sleet, n.2 Mil. Obs.—0
[? Error for cleet cleat n.]
(See quot.)
| 1802 James Milit. Dict., Sleets, are the parts of a mortar going from the chamber to the trunnions, to strengthen that part. [Hence in later Dicts.] |
▪ III. † sleet, adv. Obs.—0
[Cf. a-slet adv.]
Aslant, slanting.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 459/1 Sleet, or a-sleet, oblique. |
▪ IV. sleet, v.
(sliːt)
Also 4 slete, sleth-.
[f. sleet n.1]
1. intr. a. it sleets, sleet falls.
| c 1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 160 Ore negge, ore cemoie, sletez. c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 585 Hit is slethe for hit slethuth. 1647 Hexham i, To Sleete, sneeuwen. 1687 Miege Gt. Fr. Dict. ii, To Sleet, pleuvoir & neiger tout ensemble. 1755 Johnson, Sleet, to snow in small particles, intermixed with rain. 1845 Dickens Chimes iv. 142 So it's blowing, and sleeting, and threatening snow. 1902 Speaker 7 June 277/1 She's up to some deviltry or other When it storms, or sleets, or snows. |
b. To fall as, or like, sleet.
| 1596 Lodge Marg. Amer. 15 Or like the snow at once that dries and sleeteth [rime fleeteth]. 1955 C. M. Kornbluth Mindworm 39 Her manicured hand gripped his arm in excitement and terror. Unfelt radiation sleeted through their loins. |
2. trans. a. To pour or cast like sleet.
| 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek (1883) 127 By my formidable art the clouds shall sleet hailstones in the faces of the assailants. |
b. To drive away with sleet.
| 1891 W. F. Moulton Let. in Mem. (1899) 247 Every lingering fragment of inflection would be blown, snowed, sleeted, rained and sunned away. |
Hence ˈsleeted ppl. a., beaten upon, or covered with, sleet.
| 1849 Whittier To Fredrika Bremer ii, Strong as Winter from his mountains Roaring through the sleeted pines. 1884 Harper's Mag. Jan. 173/1 With..sleeted spars and frozen sails. |