snowed in
9
3.4
- idiom
- /snoʊd ɪn/
- UK
:
atrapado por la nieve
- After the heavy storm, we realized we were snowed in and would have to wait for help.
- get snowed in
- snowed in at the airport
- flight got snowed in
Examples
-
I'd better run to the store and stock up before I really get snowed in!
Fiction book (1999) -
We're just snowed in.
-
So when we come out we might be snowed in and then we can live in the garden centre.
-
Heard you were snowed in, so I called in a favor.
-
Dad, we could get snowed in for months.
-
I am completely snowed in here.
-
Well, we thought about flying to Paris, but the airport's snowed in.
-
It looks like I may be snowed in.
-
The Zurich airport was snowed in.
-
I'm just trying to get home but everything's snowed in.
Synonyms
4
5.2
Unable to leave a place because heavy snow blocks roads
A place where ice blocks the way so people or vehicles cannot move through
Unable to leave or move because of bad weather
Land made hard and frozen so people and vehicles cannot pass
Antonyms
How Isolated
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'unable to leave because of heavy snow' is directly inferable from 'snow' (to precipitate snow) combined with 'in' (inside), i.e. snow has left people 'in' a place. This resultative/perfect participle + preposition pattern is a regular and transparent English composition that a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand.
Etymology
Snowed in comes from the picture of snow piling up so high around a house that it keeps people in. The part snowed shows the cause and in shows being stuck inside, so it means 'unable to leave' because of heavy snow.