snowdrop
/ˈsnoʊ.dɹɑp/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.22 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of the 20 species of the genus Galanthus of the Amaryllidaceae, bulbous flowering plants, bearing a solitary, pendulous, white, bell-shaped flower that appears, depending on species, between autumn and late winter or early spring, all native to temperate Eurasia.
noun
Alternative letter-case form of Snowdrop (“a Royal Air Force police officer”).
noun
Example Sentences
- "A flower that first in this sweet garden smiled, / To virgins sacred, and the Snow-drop styled."
- "Tufts of primroses grew under the still leafless trees; the hepatica had succeeded the snowdrop."
- "White Ladies did not mean snowdrops, by their pretty old English name, ghosts in white cere-clothes, or belles in white tarlatan."
- "[I]t was considered unlucky to decorate a room with cut snowdrops. The name death's flower relates to an old belief that a solitary snowdrop indicates impending death, with suggestions that it was inauspicious to bring snowdrops indoors."
- "MS: There was a lot of snowdropping in those days? / SL: Oh, I've never actually stooped to snowdropping; I used to go into shops. Boosting, man, boosting. But you learn how to survive."
- "‘Snowdropping’ is the business of some poor sods who, often from laundry drying on a clothes line, pinch items of ladies’ underwear, take them away and sniff them."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsnoʊ.dɹɑp/
- British English: /ˈsnəʊ.dɹɒp/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Caucasian snowdrop
Crimean snowdrop
giant snowdrop
snowdrop anemone
snowdrop tree
snowdrop windflower
yellow snowdrop Erythronium spp.)