Definition of BLIZZARD

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The earliest recorded appearance of the word blizzard meaning “a severe snowstorm” was in the April 23, 1870 issue of a newspaper published in Estherville, Iowa. Blizzard shows up again during the following years in several newspapers in Iowa and neighboring states, and by 1888, when a snowstorm paralyzed the Eastern seaboard, the word was well-known nationally. However, in other senses, the word blizzard existed earlier. Davy Crockett, for instance, used it twice in the 1830s, once to mean a rifle blast and once to mean for a blast of words. All of these uses seem related, but the ultimate origin of the word is still unclear.

Examples of blizzard in a Sentence

We were snowed in by a raging blizzard.

Recent Examples on the Web Satellite photos reveal a major Chinese buildup, including a blizzard of new tents, new storage sheds, artillery pieces and even tanks. — New York Times, "Caught Between Indian and Chinese Troops, at 15,000 Feet," 11 July 2020 Hindsight is a fine thing, and offers a clarity that is absent in the blizzard of events. — The Economist, "Politics and the pandemic Britain has the wrong government for the covid crisis," 18 June 2020 The next three weeks in the district are expected to be a blizzard of television ads, mailers, and phone calls, all trying to make up for the lack of organic local interest in the race. — Eric Lach, The New Yorker, "Campaigning During the Coronavirus: The Race for New York’s Seventeenth Congressional District," 4 June 2020 The strategy Gessen puts forward is one adopted by Russian journalists in the last twenty years, faced with the blizzard of lies and threats emanating from the circle of Vladimir Putin. — Hari Kunzru, The New York Review of Books, "Democracy’s Red Line," 4 June 2020 But the body of knowledge about social distancing in all its forms is changing rapidly in real time, as the pandemic brings a blizzard of new data, research, and analysis. — Hilda Bastian, Wired, "Social Distancing Has Become the Norm. What Have We Learned?," 8 May 2020 But digging out from a blizzard of bills requires a plan no matter what’s happening in your life. — Adam Shell, USA TODAY, "5 reasons why the snowball strategy for paying off credit cards works," 15 Apr. 2020 By now, there was a blizzard, and the ship was heaving in eighteen-foot waves. — Ben Taub, The New Yorker, "Thirty-six Thousand Feet," 10 May 2020 The result could be a blizzard of false positives — reports of exposure even when the possibility of transmission was very low, said Carl Bergstrom, a professor of biology at the University of Washington who coauthored the Brookings article. — Los Angeles Times, "Apple and Google won’t solve coronavirus contact tracing. Here’s what will," 1 May 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'blizzard.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.