sleet

Etymology

From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”).

noun

1. (chiefly US) Pellets of ice made of mostly frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.
2. (chiefly UK, Ireland, New England) Precipitation in the form of a mixture of rain and snow.
3. (rare) A smooth coating of ice formed on ground or other objects by freezing rain.
4. (firearms) Part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.

verb

1. (impersonal, of the weather) To be in a state in which sleet is falling.
   I won't bother going out until it's stopped sleeting.
   It was dark, it was cold, it was sleeting - dreadful conditions for driving... perfect conditions for an accident. February 24 2021, Greg Morse, “Great Heck: a tragic chain of events”, in RAIL, number 925, page 38