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Glite Dictionary
❄️ Death from cold ❄️ To die from cold
to winterkill

to winterkill

8.2
To die or make plants and animals die because of very cold winter weather
  • verb
  • /ˈwɪntərˌkɪl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : morir por el frío
  • Farmers worry that a harsh winter might winterkill their wheat crops.

Examples

  • Many young trees can winterkill if temperatures drop suddenly in early spring.

  • The extreme cold can winterkill young plants.

  • Some fish species winterkill in shallow lakes when the ice blocks oxygen.

  • Will this frost winterkill the crops?

  • The unprotected plants were likely to winterkill after the temperature dropped to below freezing.

  • Farmers worry that a harsh frost could winterkill their young seedlings.

  • If the winter is especially severe, many crops could winterkill before spring.

Antonyms

to survive
∞ 2.7

Continue to exist after a dangerous or difficult event

to revive
71 4.1

To make a person conscious again after fainting

Surface Forms

winterkill infinitive
winterkilled past
winterkilled past participle
winterkilling present participle
winterkills third person singular

Morphology

winterkill = winter + kill (transparent) = winter + kill

The verb is directly interpretable as the action 'to kill by winter'; it is a verbal use of the same compound components.

Etymology

As a verb, winterkill is also made of winter ('the cold season') and kill ('to cause death'), so to winterkill something is to cause it to die, or for plants and fish to die, because of very cold weather.