winterkill means the mortality resulting from lethal wintry conditions among a human, animal, and/or vegetal population. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 90 out of 100.
Why “winterkill” is a great word
Mortality among plants, animals, or humans caused by the cumulative stresses of severe cold; to die or be killed by such conditions. From winter (the coldest season) + kill (to cause death). The verb is attested from 1790 (Noah Webster); the noun from 1837. Unlike "frostbite," which denotes a specific, localized injury from freezing, or "hibernate," which describes a successful strategy for survival, winterkill signifies the final, total failure of that strategy. It is the orchard's gray skeleton of peach trees after a February without snow, the still, sunken forms of fish beneath the ice of a shallow pond, and the lone deer found in a hollow, its ribs a delicate cage beneath matted fur. It is the season's final accounting, delivered in a prolonged, crystalline silence.
Etymology
From winter + kill.
noun
- The mortality resulting from lethal wintry conditions among a human, animal, and/or vegetal population.
verb
- To kill by the conditions of winter, especially the effect of the cold, freezing.“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”
- To die from the above effects of winter conditions.“Order new rose bushes to replace any that have winterkilled.”
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