snow eater
- noun
- US
:
viento chinook
- The arrival of a snow eater can transform a landscape overnight, leaving little trace of the previous snowfall.
Examples
-
After weeks of winter, a sudden snow eater brought spring-like temperatures to the valley.
-
Farmers welcomed the snow eater as it thawed the fields earlier than expected.
-
The snow eater melted the snow quickly.
-
During winter, the snow eaters can be quite strong.
-
After weeks of winter, a sudden snow eater brought spring-like temperatures to the valley.
-
Farmers welcomed the snow eater as it thawed the fields earlier than expected.
-
The arrival of a snow eater can transform a landscape overnight, leaving little trace of the previous snowfall.
Synonyms
1
7.7
A warm dry wind that blows down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
A warm dry wind that blows down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and quickly raises temperature
Surface Forms
Morphology
snow + eater
The components 'snow' + 'eater' yield a clear literal image of something that 'consumes' or removes snow, so a B1 learner would likely guess it refers to a snow-removing agent. However the precise, regional meteorological sense — a warm, dry downslope wind that rapidly melts snow — is specialized and not directly predictable from the parts (learners might instead imagine a person, animal, or machine), so the meaning is only partially inferable.
Etymology
The noun snow eater may come from the image of a warm, dry wind rushing down mountain slopes that seems to 'eat' the snow by melting it quickly. So, snow eater means a wind that quickly melts snow and clears the land.