wintry

• wintery (nonstandard)

From winter +‎ -y; compare Old English wintriġ (a parallel formation).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪnt(ə)ɹɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: ʹwĭnt(ə-)rē, IPA^(key): /ˈwɪnt(ə)ɹi/, [ˈwɪɾ̃(ə)ɹi]
• Rhymes: -ɪntɹi
• Hyphenation: win‧try

wintry (comparative wintrier, superlative wintriest)

1. Suggestive or characteristic of winter; cold, stormy.

   Synonyms: brumal, hibernal, hiemal

   wintry weather

   • 1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, page 19:

     A faded, and an ancient dragon he was; and many a wintry storm of rain, snow, sleet, and hail, had changed his colour from a gaudy blue to a faint lack-lustre shade of gray.

   • 2003 February 24, John Pomfret, “Quake Kills More Than 250 in Western China”, in The Washington Post‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 March 2024‎^[2]:

     In one village in Bachu County, more than 1,000 buildings and houses collapsed, according to the state-run New China News Agency. Tens of thousands of people were left homeless and were preparing to spend the night outside in the wintry chill, witnesses said.

   • 2023 February 28, James Robinson, “UK weather: Met Office says snow could be on the way as cold air over Greenland risks bringing wintry conditions”, in Sky News‎^[3], archived from the original on 18 March 2023:

     The UK could face a spell of wintry weather in March, with lower-than-average temperatures and even the chance of snow, the Met Office has warned.

2. (of precipitation) Containing sleet or snow.

   Synonyms: sleety, snowy

   It will be cloudy overnight, with outbreaks of heavy rain at times. The rain may turn wintry over higher ground.

3. Aged, white-haired.

   Synonyms: grisly, hoary; see also Thesaurus:old, Thesaurus:elderly

4. Chilling, cheerless.

   Synonyms: bleak, dreary; see also Thesaurus:cheerless

   a wintry remark

   • 1934, Frank Richards, The Magnet: The Bounder's Folly:

     He reached the old ruins at last, dim masses of moss-grown masonry in the glimmer of the wintry starlight.

• “wintry”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “wintry” in Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary: Based on Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 7th edition, Springfield, Mass.: G[eorge] & C[harles] Merriam, 1963 (1967 printing), →OCLC.