English

Alternative forms

• winter-kill
• winter kill

Noun

winterkill ‎(plural winterkills)

1. The mortality resulting from lethal wintry conditions among a human, animal, and/or vegetal population.

Related terms

Translations

Verb

winterkill ‎(third-person singular simple present winterkills, present participle winterkilling, simple past and past participle winterkilled)

1. (transitive) To kill by the conditions of winter, especially the effect of the cold, freezing.
   • 1919, University of Wisconsin. Agricultural Experiment Station, Report of the director, volume 37-46:

     From these data it is evident that the frequent low temperatures may have winterkilled many bare fields of common alfalfa before the ice sheets occurred the latter part of February 1922

   • 1972, Commonwealth Secretariat. Commodities Division, Commonwealth Economic Committee, Grain bulletin, volume 18-19:

     The severe cold in conditions of only light snow protection is also reported to have winterkilled considerable areas of winter grains in Poland, Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia

   • 2001, Sam Wellman, George Washington Carver: Inventor and Naturalist:

     It surely had winterkilled all the soft-grained wheat that had been planted.

2. (intransitive) To die from the above effects of winter conditions.
   • 1951 April 1, “Around the Garden; Future for Pot Plants”, in New York Times:

     Order new rose bushes to replace any that have winterkilled.

   • 2004, “Utah's Top 10 fishing spots”, in Salt Lake Tribune, The:

     Some lakes may have winterkilled but anglers will find fish if they take some time to look for them