winter

Especially of stocks, to buy when both demand and cost are low so that one may then sell when demand and price are high. A phrase attributed to Russell Sage, a 19th-century American investor and financier. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. I made a fortune buying shares in the startup company before smartphone technology became ubiquitous—I bought straw hats in winter, and now they're worth a fortune!

To monitor one's behavior or abilities for a sufficiently long period of time. Oh yes, I will summer and winter him during this probationary period, to determine if we should hire him full-time.

A beat-up car that one does not mind driving in harsh winter weather. Primarily heard in US. A: "You don't take your Corvette out in the snow, do you?" B: "Of course not, that's what my winter rat is for!"

to spend the winter at some place. The bears all winter over in their dens. All the animals are getting ready either to migrate or to winter over. My parents winter over in Florida.

during the middle of the night The fire broke out in the dead of night.

in the middle of winter, when it is very cold and dark Behind the house was a garden with curving flowerbeds that were beautiful, even in the dead of winter.

in the middle of the night or in the middle of winter The fire broke out in the dead of night.

The period of greatest intensity of something, such as darkness or cold. For example, I love looking at seed catalogs in the dead of winter, when it's below zero outside. The earliest recorded use of dead of night, for "darkest time of night," was in Edward Hall's Chronicle of 1548: "In the dead of the night ... he broke up his camp and fled." Dead of winter, for the coldest part of winter, dates from the early 1600s.