- 1[uncountable] small balls of ice that fall like rain We drove through hail and snow. Wordfindersnowavalanche, blizzard, drift, flurry, hail, icicle, sleet, slush, snow, thaw Oxford Collocations Dictionary hail + verbfall, melt hail + nounstone, storm prepositionin (the) hail, through (the) hail See full entry See related entries: Rain, Snow and ice
- 2[singular] a hail of something a large number or amount of something that is aimed at somebody in order to harm them a hail of arrows/bullets a hail of abuse Word Originnoun Old English hagol, hægl (noun), hagalian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hagel and German Hagel.Extra examples It was terrible driving through the hail. The hail melted once the sun came out. We got caught in the hail. A passer-by was caught in the hail of bullets. It’s hailing! Rain and hail pounded on the tiled roof. The attempt to bring in new legislation was met by a hail of criticism.
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