silver thaw
- noun
- /ˈsɪlvər θɔ/
- UK
:
deshielo plateado
- After the silver thaw, power lines and roads were dangerously slick and covered in ice.
Examples
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Driving during the silver thaw was quite treacherous.
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A silver thaw coated the trees in a beautiful sheen, making the landscape look magical.
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The silver thaw made the roads dangerously slippery.
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After the silver thaw, everything looked beautiful but treacherous.
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After the silver thaw, the roads were coated in ice, making driving very dangerous.
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The trees glistened beautifully after the silver thaw, creating a picturesque winter scene.
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Residents were warned to be cautious due to the silver thaw that had made sidewalks slick.
Synonyms
A storm when freezing rain covers everything in ice
How Icy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase pairs 'silver' (a silvery sheen) with 'thaw' (a period of melting), so a B1 learner who knows both words could plausibly infer a thaw characterized by a silvery appearance. However, the specialized meteorological sense—freezing rain creating a shiny, hazardous coating rather than ordinary melting—is a narrowed, partly metaphorical extension that is not fully predictable from the constituents alone.
Etymology
The weather term silver thaw comes from the sight of rain that freezes on trees and roads and makes them shine like silver. The word silver shows the shiny ice and thaw shows the weather change, so the phrase means 'freezing rain' that leaves a 'coating of ice' and makes travel dangerous.