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cold snap
noun
- a sudden onset of a relatively brief period of cold weather.
cold snap
noun
- a sudden short spell of cold weather
Word History and Origins
Origin of cold snap1
Idioms and Phrases
Also, cold spell . A short period of unusually cold weather, as in The recent cold snap has threatened the crop . The first expression presumably likens snap in the sense of “a sudden bite or cut” to sudden unexpected cold. The variant is more obvious, spell having been used in the sense of “a bout or turn at something” since the early 1700s. [Early 1800s]Example Sentences
For many of us, the recent cold snap served as a bitter taste of winter to come.
One could not tell how long the cold-snap would last, but it had already embarrassed him.
About a week after the return to school the snow cleared away and then came a cold snap that made excellent skating.
I noticed the blooms again this spring, but a cold snap killed the blooms, and only now and then can I find a seed.
A storm and then a cold snap would help matters wonderfully, and for these we hoped.
In the fall, with the first cold snap, came the Cardinal, to spend his second winter in the old home.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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