idiom (verb phrase) · neutral
be snowed under (with something)
UK/biː ˈsnəʊd ˌʌndə/US/biː ˈsnoʊdərd/be SNOWED·un·der
speakingtask2
to have so much work that you cannot deal with it all
Examples
“I've been snowed under with marking this week.”
“The staff were snowed under after the sudden increase in orders.”
“Students are often snowed under during exam season.”
Band 8 sentence
“During the audit period the finance team was snowed under with reconciliation tasks and vendor queries.”
Collocations
- snowed under with work
- snowed under by emails
Word family
be snowed under, get snowed under, was snowed under verb phrase
Common mistakes
snowed on→snowed under
be snowed→be snowed under
Say it for a higher band
5busy→6overwhelmed→7+be snowed under (with)
Synonyms
overwhelmed
Easily confused
be overwhelmed
“After three back-to-back conferences, she felt overwhelmed and needed a break.”
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