Crossword clues for snowdrift
snowdrift
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Snowdrift \Snow"drift`\, n. A bank of drifted snow.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. A bank of snow accumulated by the wind.
WordNet
n. a mass of snow heaped up by the wind
Wikipedia
A snowdrift is a deposit of snow sculpted by wind into a mound during a snowstorm. Snowdrifts resemble sand dunes and are formed in a similar manner, namely, by wind moving light snow and depositing it when the wind has virtually stopped, usually against a stationary object. Snow normally crests and slopes off toward the surface on the windward side of a large object. On the leeward side, areas near the object are a bit lower than surrounding areas, but are generally flatter.
The impact of snowdrifts on transportation can be more significant than the snowfall itself, such as in the USA during the blizzard of 1978. Snowdrifts are many times found at or on roads, as the crest of the roadbed or the furrows along the road create the disruption to the wind needed to shed its carried snow. Snow fences may be employed on the windward side of the road to intentionally create a drift before the snow-laden wind reaches the road.
Jeremy Triefenbach, one of the 19th century's great explorers, is reputed to have become trapped in a snowdrift; surviving solely on melted snow for 13 days. His version of the story can be found in his autobiography.
Usage examples of "snowdrift".
It depicted the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV barefoot in the snow at Canossa, but with one foot on the neck of Pope Gregory the Great, who lay prone, his tiara knocked off, his face ignominiously buried in a snowdrift.
Finally the barges reached snowbound and windswept heathlands in which a few sheep-pens and juniper bushes projected themselves from sculpted snowdrifts like ruins.
At the same moment what felt like the entire clan of Nac Mac Feegle landed on her back and sent her sliding into a snowdrift.
A happy ship, I chuckled, and ran Dancer out through the islands, threading a fine course through the clear green waters where the reefs lurked darkly below the surface like malevolent monsters and the islands were fringed with coral sand as dazzling white as a snowdrift, and crowned with dark thick vegetation over which the palm stems curved gracefully, their tops shaking in the feeble remnants of the trade.
The winds that had howled around the snowcapped peaks relentlessly for the sixty years since the Fire Dog Year blew snowdrifts deep into the cave.
Much sought after in the warm months, the riverside campgrounds are empty in winter, buried beneath snowdrifts, next to a river as cold and clear as ice.
The place where Chris Northon had died was literally cut off by snowdrifts from midfall until spring.
After he had found himself beyond the first stand of windbreak trees, which had now acquired a mammoth windbreak snowdrift with a few green strands of pine needles sticking through on the leeward side, he had spread out his cloak on the snow and lain down upon it to rest for a few minutes - moving through thigh-high snow was hard and sweaty work - and when he finally stopped panting, he had strapped the brezeneden to his overboots, and started to walk.
Lew on the trail, shouting oddments of Scots songs in his rich voice, and verses of the metrical Psalms of his youth, engaged in thunderous discourse with the Hare in his own tongue, seemed to dominate the snowdrifts and the blizzards and the spells of paralysing cold.
Where there were no snowdrifts, the ground was hard and rough, and often slick.
A search was mounted, of course, but he had gone, evidently through the snowdrifts, to make contact with one of the organizations prepared to help ex-Nazis escape.
Gina waded through the snowdrifts a few steps ahead of him, less accustomed to the cold than he was, probably feeling it even more sharply.
There lay only a narrow clearing round the house now, hummocked with unbroken snowdrifts, before the trees began, with a narrow path leading away.
Pausing for only a moment as she realized they had reached her destination, Kahlan set her snowshoes firmly into the snowdrift that covered the steps, and ascended to the portico, its fascia decorated with a row of statues swathed in cut stone that mimicked the drape of cloth so well it seemed as if it might move in the light breeze.
I rushed back and proceeding very carefully to remove the snowdrift under the window, I came upon the remains of the missing camellias lying on the frozen earth.