Also snowdrift. [f. SNOW sb.1 Cf. Norw. dial. snjodrift, -driv, ON. snjódrif, Sw. snödrifva, Da. snedrive.]
1. A heap or mass of snow driven together, or piled up, by the action of the wind.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9932. Wit-in þis castel þat sua es tift, Þat quitter es þan snau drif [read drift, but the Gött. MS. has on drift].
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XX. cxxxvi. As against the warm’th of Titans fire, Snow drifts consume.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxxv. I would rather keep watch on a snow-drift.
1860. G. A. Spottiswoode, Vac. Tour, 96. We were soon planted in a snow-drift, fifty or sixty yards long, higher than the carriage.
1874. Green, Short Hist., ii. § 4. 72. He … helped with his own hands to clear a road through the snowdrifts.
transf. 1864. Daily Telegr., 16 July, 5/6. There are snowdrifts of pearls of great price.
2. A driving mass or cloud of snow; snow driven before the wind.
1836. Uncle Philip’s Convers. Whale Fishery, 200. He … never walked farther from the ships than a mile, for fear of being overtaken by a snow-drift.
1892. J. Lumsden, Sheep-head & Trotters, 137. The snawdrift, o’er Soutra, in tempest was blawing.
