1. One of the small masses in which snow commonly falls.
1734. Cupid & Psyche, 28. Soft as the cygnet’s down his wings, And as the falling snowflake fair.
1822. Shelley, ‘We meet not as we parted,’ ii. That moment is gone for ever,… Like a snowflake upon the river.
1847. Prescott, Peru, III. ii. (1850), II. 39. A white cloud of pavilions was seen covering the ground as thick as snow-flakes.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 63. The largest snow-flakes fall when the temperature is near the freezing-point.
2. The snow-bunting. (Cf. SNOW-FLECK.)
1770. Pennant, Brit. Zool., IV. 17. Snow Flake. These birds appear in hard weather on the Cheviot Hills, and in the Highlands of Scotland, in amazing flocks.
1793. Statist. Acc. Scot., VII. 547. The snowflake, the rail or corncrake.
1837. R. Dunn, Ornith. Ork. & Shetl., 79. The Snowflake appears regularly in both countries.
1845. Zoologist, III. 822. In hard winters snowflakes come from the North by thousands.
1872. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 133. Snow Bunting. Snowflake. In breeding plumage, pure white, the back, wings and tail variegated with black.
3. One or other variety of Leucojum.
1798. Curtis, Fl. Londinensis, II. pl. 72. As it differs very essentially in its fructification from the Galanthus we have thought it necessary to give it the new English name of Snowflake.
1806. J. Galpine, Brit. Bot., 168. Leucojum æstivum, summer snow-flake.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1067/2. Spring Snowflake, Erinosma.
1882. Garden, 28 Jan., 56/3. The Snowflake … is in full bloom, but owing to want of sun, has not expanded its flowers.
1899. Gardening Illustr., 27 May, 167/1. In the earliest spring … the Spring Snowflake (L. vernum) is flowering in southern gardens…. Later on comes the taller-growing Summer Snowflake (L. æstivum).
4. (See quot.) Also attrib.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 452/2. Snowflake, a term employed to denote a particular method of weaving woollen cloths, by which process small knots are thrown upon the face.
1890. Daily News, 8 Jan., 7/6, Advt. A Large Lot … Snowflake Costumes, all Pure Wool.
5. A name for a variety of potato.
1882. Daily News, 9 March, 2/8. Potatoes,… foreign Snowflakes.
