Also snow-drop. [f. SNOW sb.1 Cf. G. schneetropfen, -tröpfchen, -tröpflein, Sw. snödroppe; also G. schneeglocke, Du. sneeuwklokje, Da. sneklokke, Sw. snöklocka ‘snowbell.’]

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  1.  An early-flowering bulbous plant (Galanthus nivalis), having a white pendent flower; also, a flower, bulb, or single plant of this.

2

1664.  Boyle, Exper. & Consid. Colours, 264. Those purely White Flowers that appear about the end of Winter, and are commonly call’d Snow drops.

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1664.  Evelyn, Kal. Hort., 81. December…. Flowers in Prime,… Snow flowers or drops, Yucca, &c.

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1728–46.  Thomson, Spring, 529. Fair-handed Spring … Throws out the snowdrop, and the crocus first.

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1763–5.  Churchill, Gotham, I. Poems, 1767, II. 12. The Snow-drop, who, in habit white and plain Comes on the Herald of fair Flora’s train.

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1796.  Withering, Brit. Pl. (ed. 3), I. 21. The Snow-drop, though not frequent in a wild state, is to be found in almost every Garden.

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1820.  Shelley, Sensit. Pl., I. 13. The snowdrop, and then the violet, Arose from the ground with warm rain wet.

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1856.  Delamer, Fl. Garden (1860), 42. There are single and double snowdrops.

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1872.  Tennyson, Last Tourn., 220. The snowdrop only, flowering thro’ the year, Would make the world as blank as winter-tide.

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  attrib.  1811.  W. R. Spencer, Poems, 66. The snow-drop paths of innocence.

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1865.  Allingham, 50 Mod. Poems, Vernal Voluntary. Snowdrop-flow’r, and crocus.

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1894.  Daily News, 1 June, 8/1. The cold and rather trying purity of snowdrop white.

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  b.  transf. Applied to a girl.

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1833.  T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., I. vii. Our little snow-drop, as I call her, is the cause.

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1884.  Milnor (Dakota) Teller, 27 June. A photograph gallery where the boys will gather with their little Dakota snowdrops.

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  2.  With distinctive terms, or attrib. (see quots.).

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1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Narcisso-Leucojum, Lesser Bulbous-violet or Snow-drop. Ibid., Greater Snow-drop or Bulbous-violet.

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1822.  Hortus Anglicus, II. 50. Anemone sylvestris, Large white flowered or Snow Drop Anemone.

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1848.  Craig, II. s.v. Snow, The placid snowdrop is the Galanthis plicatus, a native of the Crimea.

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1891.  Cent. Dict., s.v. Royena, R. lucida, known as African snowdrop, or African bladder-nut, is a pretty greenhouse species.

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  3.  Used as a name for a variety of wheat or potato.

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1844.  C. Hillyard, Pract. Farm. & Grazing (ed. 4), 89. The Whittington, and my snowdrop white wheat.

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1900.  Daily News, 23 July, 2/5. Potatoes: Early Puritans,… Snowdrops.

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