gla·cial

[gley-shuhl]
adjective
1.
of or pertaining to glaciers or ice sheets.
2.
resulting from or associated with the action of ice or glaciers: glacial terrain.
3.
characterized by the presence of ice in extensive masses or glaciers.
4.
bitterly cold; icy: a glacial winter wind.
5.
happening or moving extremely slowly: The work proceeded at a glacial pace.
6.
icily unsympathetic or immovable: a glacial stare; glacial indifference.
7.
Chemistry. of, pertaining to, or tending to develop into icelike crystals: glacial phosphoric acid.
Origin:
1650–60; < Latin glaciālis icy, equivalent to glaci(ēs) ice + -ālis -al1

Related forms
gla·cial·ly, adverb
non·gla·cial, adjective
non·gla·cial·ly, adverb
un·gla·cial, adjective
un·gla·cial·ly, adverb

Synonyms
4. chill, freezing, frigid, wintry. 6. forbidding, unfriendly, hostile.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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to restore or reduce to the natural or uncombined state, such as a metal
like or containing an alkali, which neutralize acids to form salts and turn red litmus paper blue, or having a pH value greater than 7
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Collins
World English Dictionary
glacial (ˈɡleɪsɪəl, -ʃəl) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—adj
1.  characterized by the presence of masses of ice
2.  relating to, caused by, or deposited by a glacier
3.  extremely cold; icy
4.  cold or hostile in manner: a glacial look
5.  (of a chemical compound) of or tending to form crystals that resemble ice: glacial acetic acid
6.  very slow in progress: a glacial pace
 
'glacially
 
—adv

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

glacial
1656, from Fr. glacial, from L. glacialis "icy, frozen, full of ice," from glacies "ice," from PIE base *gel- "cold" (cf. L. gelu "frost"). Geological sense apparently coined by Professor E. Forbes, 1846.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
glacial   (glā'shəl)  Pronunciation Key 

  1. Relating to or derived from a glacier.

  2. Characterized or dominated by the existence of glaciers, as the Pleistocene Epoch.


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Example sentences
Now my heart seems to be racing in my head, but my blood is glacial, cold and
  slow.
The temperature of the world fluctuated widely, and there were long periods of
  glacial cold.
But your correspondent is not sure that more raw speed will solve the glacial
  loading problem.
Then he had entered gaily the door of the glacial epoch, and had surveyed a
  universe of unities and uniformities.
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