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snowdrop

noun

  1. 2013 single by Luna Haruna
L328054 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈsnəʊ.dɹɒp/ / /ˈsnoʊ.dɹɑp/

noun

Etymology: From snow + drop.

  1. Any of the 20 species of the genus Galanthus of the Amaryllidaceae, bulbous flowering plants, bearing a solitary, pendulous, white, bell-shaped flower that appears, depending on species, between autumn and late winter or early spring, all native to temperate Eurasia.

    “A flower that first in this sweet garden smiled, / To virgins sacred, and the Snow-drop styled.”

    “Tufts of primroses grew under the still leafless trees; the hepatica had succeeded the snowdrop.”

  2. Alternative letter-case form of Snowdrop (“a Royal Air Force police officer”).

verb

Etymology: From snow + drop.

  1. To steal clothing (especially women's underwear) from a clothesline.

    “MS: There was a lot of snowdropping in those days? / SL: Oh, I've never actually stooped to snowdropping; I used to go into shops. Boosting, man, boosting. But you learn how to survive.”

    “‘Snowdropping’ is the business of some poor sods who, often from laundry drying on a clothes line, pinch items of ladies’ underwear, take them away and sniff them.”