# snow under



## ManOfWords

slang meaning: *2. *To defeat by a very large margin.

So, could I say ''I gonna snow you under boy!'' ?

or

I challenged Carlson in chess and got snowed under.


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## london calling

_I gonna_ isn't correct English. If you wish to write something that sounds like everyday, rapidly-spoken English you're going to need '*I'm* gonna' (but only if you really have to: this kind of thing often sounds odd when not pronounced by a native speaker of English unless s/he's extremely fluent).

You can certainly say ''I'm gonna snow you under boy!'' but I would have absolutely no idea what was meant, as you have provided no context.


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## lingobingo

That’s not a meaning I know. To “be snowed under” is to be overwhelmed with something, usually work.


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## ManOfWords

Hmm thanks people. I found it here.

snowed


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## Packard

It is pretty standard in American English and parallels he metaphor "buried".  It means you have too much work.

I am snowed under with paperwork.

I am buried with paperwork.


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## london calling

Fine, _*2. *To defeat by a very large margin _is AE only, but in any case you still haven't told us in which specific situation (context) you intend using your sentence. It won't necessarily work in all of them.


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## ManOfWords

Packard said:


> It is pretty standard in American English and parallels he metaphor "buried".  It means you have too much work.
> 
> I am snowed under with paperwork.
> 
> I am buried with paperwork.


*2. *To defeat by a very large margin. ... would it also be applied in sports?


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## ManOfWords

london calling said:


> Fine, _*2. *To defeat by a very large margin _is AE only, but in any case you still haven't told us in which specific situation (context) you intend using your sentence. It won't necessarily work in all of them.


I have, < I challenged Carlson in chess and got snowed under. > Magnus Carlson ... ?!


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## lingobingo

The active version of “snow [someone] under” is *not* used in the UK, to the best of my knowledge, either to mean overburden with work or beat conclusively.

The only meaning it has here is in the passive construction “to be snowed under”.


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## ManOfWords

I challenged Bolt for a sprint and got snowed under ...


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## london calling

I was referring to _So, could I say ''I gonna snow you under boy!'' _


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## ManOfWords

london calling said:


> I was referring to _So, could I say ''I gonna snow you under boy!'' _


in a sport sense ...


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## dojibear

I have never heard this meaning (one person defeating another in a sport) in the US. 

So if it is used, I don't know the correct way to use it.

I've only heard "snowed under by too much work" (overwheelmed). In that use the metaphor is clear, for anyone who has lived in an area where you get half-meter-high snowfalls. It takes a great deal of work to clear your driveway, your car, your front door, the porch, the walkways...


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## kentix

I've never heard it in a sports context. It might be AE (according to the dictionary), but it's not common AE used that way. There are so many other sports terms that people recognize that you would be well-advised to use one of those.

_I challenged Bolt for a sprint and got destroyed._

Among many.


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## Packard

ManOfWords said:


> *2. *To defeat by a very large margin. ... would it also be applied in sports?



That does not sound right to me.  It is almost always used in reference with too much work to do.  

_I have an avalanche of work to do._ (Another similar metaphor--but far less used.)


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## Packard

Packard said:


> That does not sound right to me.  It is almost always used in reference with too much work to do.
> 
> _I have an avalanche of work to do._ (Another similar metaphor--but far less used.)



Note:  I've been calling these "metaphors" but they are also hyperboles.


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## AnythingGoes

dojibear said:


> I have never heard this meaning (one person defeating another in a sport) in the US.
> 
> <SNIP>
> 
> I've only heard "snowed under by too much work" (overwheelmed). In that use the metaphor is clear, for anyone who has lived in an area where you get half-meter-high snowfalls. It takes a great deal of work to clear your driveway, your car, your front door, the porch, the walkways...





kentix said:


> I've never heard it in a sports context. It might be AE (according to the dictionary), but it's not common AE used that way.


I too have never hear _snowed under_ used to mean anything other than _overwhelmed with work._


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## london calling

Interesting.

Merriam-Webster carries this second meaning too. The example given is:

The challenger _snowed_ the incumbent _under_ in a big upset.


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## Packard

london calling said:


> Interesting.
> 
> Merriam-Webster carries this second meaning too. The example given is:
> 
> The challenger _snowed_ the incumbent _under_ in a big upset.



I've heard, "I was completely snowed." 

In that case it means I was buried with believable bullshit which I accepted as real.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Packard said:


> I've heard, "I was completely snowed."
> 
> In that case it means I was buried with believable bullshit which I accepted as real.



Yes, we also say "a snow job" for an 'avalanche' of bullshit. 

In addition to work, mightn't we say for instance "I was snowed Under [by?] requests for (something)."? 

Don't ask me where the the capital U in 'Under' came from; I didn't type it, and when I try to correct it, it just keeps popping back up.


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## Packard

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> "I was snowed under [by?] requests for (something)."?
> 
> Don't ask me where the the capital U in 'Under' came from; I didn't type it, and when I try to correct it, it just keeps popping back up.



There.  Fixed it.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

"Har-har-_HA_R-dee-har-_HAR_!" (Ralph  Kramden)

[Reply to #21.]

Seriously (staying on topic), do you agree with what I wrote in #20?


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## Loob

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> "Har-har-_HA_R-dee-har-_HAR_!" (Ralph  Kramden)
> 
> [Reply to #21.]
> 
> Seriously (staying on topic), do you agree with what I wrote in #20?


I'm confused, ain'tt.

The OP is asking whether it's possible to say "I'm going to snow you under".

Your post 20 doesn't seem to answer that.


.....

Edit. I would have said it wasn't possible. I'm intrigued by london calling's post 18.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Re my #20, I meant (or meant to say) that I have seen "snowed under (by)" to refer to being overwhelmed by other things than work (my example: requests), but not in the context of sports(writing).

The "Har-har-_HAR-dee-har-HAR" _reference was to an old (as in black-and-white TV days) US  comic (s'itcom') series, _The Honeymooners_.

As for #18, I'd've said "The challenger buried the incumbent..." (Please be patient with me; I can't tell you how many times a post I've been writing has been put up before I've finished writing it. I hope this is a bug, not a feature.)


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## ManOfWords

Hmmmmmm  ... it does seem to be plausible after all ... would it maybe be a bit old-fashioned?


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## kentix

If it is, it's so old-fashioned that it was before any of us were born.


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## lingobingo

You can find a number of examples in Google Books, including those published in the 19th century.


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## ManOfWords




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## Packard

I Googled *"snow him under" in a sentence* (in quotation marks as shown) and got over 2,000 examples.  Most of them were Google Books copies which tend to be older books and in newspaper archives (also old).  I could not find any in current documents, but I only went as far as four Google pages.

"snow him under" in a sentence - Google Search


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## lingobingo

But that doesn’t help. You get almost exclusively examples of the “inundated” usage, not the “beat by a wide margin” one that no one seems to have heard of.


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## Packard

lingobingo said:


> But that doesn’t help. You get almost exclusively examples of the “inundated” usage, not the “beat by a wide margin” one that no one seems to have heard of.




I was just looking for an example where it was not used in the past tense (snow vs. snowed).


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## ManOfWords

Also here: snow - WordReference.com Dictionary of English

*snow under,* [~ + object + under]

to cover with snow:The worst storm in a decade snowed the town under.
to overwhelm:I've been snowed under with all this work.
to defeat completely.
Maybe like ''her early death snowed him under til his last days'' ...


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## lingobingo

ManOfWords said:


> Also here: snow - WordReference.com Dictionary of English


Note that the WR dictionary gives usage examples of the other two definitions but apparently couldn’t find one for “snow under” meaning “to defeat completely”!


ManOfWords said:


> Maybe like ''her early death snowed him under til his last days'' ...


What does that mean? It’s completely unidiomatic.


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## ManOfWords

lingobingo said:


> Note that the WR dictionary gives usage examples of the other two definitions but apparently couldn’t find one for “snow under” meaning “to defeat completely”!
> 
> What does that mean? It’s completely unidiomatic.


like a husband and wife ... old age ... she dies and that ''defeats'' him til his death ... why is it so weird?


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## ManOfWords

And why 3 dictionaries so far would have the meaning “to defeat completely” if it wasn't somehow known by some speakers .. maybe to informal to have written examples at the time??


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## Packard

My earlier Google search (post #29) was to show how infrequently "to snow" is used in the context of "overwhelm", whereas "snowed" is frequently used in that context. 

_He was completely *snowed* with work._  (Sounds colloquial and conventional.)

_Let's *snow* him with work so he can't get in our way. _ (Does not sound colloquial or conventional.)

So I might be OK with:

_I was so completely snowed by his relentless attacks with his pawns that I failed to see him setup with his rook._

But not with:

_I planned to snow him with my pawn attack as a diversion for setting up my rook for attack._


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## ManOfWords

Packard said:


> My earlier Google search (post #29) was to show how infrequently "to snow" is used in the context of "overwhelm", whereas "snowed" is frequently used in that context.
> 
> _He was completely *snowed* with work._  (Sounds colloquial and conventional.)
> 
> _Let's *snow* him with work so he can't get in our way. _ (Does not sound colloquial or conventional.)
> 
> So I might be OK with:
> 
> _I was so completely snowed by his relentless attacks with his pawns that I failed to see him setup with his rook._
> 
> But not with:
> 
> _I planned to snow him with my pawn attack as a diversion for setting up my rook for attack._


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## lingobingo

One way in which it was used in the past is with reference to elections, where to be snowed under (by huge numbers of votes) was to lose heavily — which is possibly related to the present-day idiom of winning a “landslide victory” in the polls. It’s likely that this is the origin of the American definition “defeat by a very large margin”. In the following examples, presumably the fact that they are all from the same year is no coincidence.

If such a man is nominated let workingmen snow him under by a million votes. 
(from the American journal of trainmen, 1894)

Mercier was snowed under by a majority greater than had ever been known in Canadian history.
(from the United Service Magazine, 1894)

Good citizenship demands that gangster candidates should be snowed under at the polls.
(headline in the _Chicago Tribune_, April 1894)​
This is another 19th-century example I found that is not connected with elections:

Time has 'snowed' him 'under,' but his step is vigorous, and his grasp is firm. 
(from the New York Monthly Magazine, 1856)​And this more recent example has a revealing footnote:

I want to go and pick on him and snow him under,* but never have the time since he is only up there when I am supposed to be working.
* Army slang for giving someone a rough time (in this context)
(from _Dear Miye: Letters home from Japan 1939–1946_, 1995)​


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## ManOfWords

lingobingo said:


> One way in which it was used in the past is with reference to elections, where to be snowed under (by huge numbers of votes) was to lose heavily — which is possibly related to the present-day idiom of winning a “landslide victory” in the polls. It’s likely that this is the origin of the American definition “defeat by a very large margin”. In the following examples, presumably the fact that they are all from the same year is no coincidence.
> 
> If such a man is nominated let workingmen snow him under by a million votes.
> (from the American journal of trainmen, 1894)
> 
> Mercier was snowed under by a majority greater than had ever been known in Canadian history.
> (from the United Service Magazine, 1894)
> 
> Good citizenship demands that gangster candidates should be snowed under at the polls.
> (headline in the _Chicago Tribune_, April 1894)​
> This is another 19th-century example I found that is not connected with elections:
> 
> Time has 'snowed' him 'under,' but his step is vigorous, and his grasp is firm.
> (from the New York Monthly Magazine, 1856)​And this more recent example has a revealing footnote:
> 
> I want to go and pick on him and snow him under,* but never have the time since he is only up there when I am supposed to be working.
> * Army slang for giving someone a rough time (in this context)
> (from _Dear Miye: Letters home from Japan 1939–1946_, 1995)​


THANKS!  that's amazing!


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

"Time has competely snowed him over" = "Time has turned his hair completely white"? There's an expression used by men with white hair to say they're still sexually active: "There may be snow on the roof but there's fire in the furnace." (Or is this off-topic because it doesn't address whether "snow under" can be used in a sports context? I said in #24 that I can't recall having heard it used in this way.)


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## ManOfWords

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> "Time has competely snowed him over" = "Time has turned his hair completely white"? There's an expression used by men with white hair to say they're still sexually active: "There may be snow on the roof but there's fire in the furnace." (Or is this off-topic because it doesn't address whether "snow under" can be used in a sports context? I said in #24 that I can't recall having heard it used in this way.)


cool expression!


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