black ice


noun
  1. a thin sheet of ice, as on a road surface, usually caused by freezing mist and creating hazardous driving conditions.

  2. Oceanography. sea ice that is clear enough to show the color of the water underneath.

Origin of black ice

1
An Americanism dating back to 1820–30

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use black ice in a sentence

  • Near the door thousands of stilettos slide and shuffle on black ice, somehow always keeping their immaculate balance.

    Russia’s Gold Digger Academy | Peter Pomerantsev | November 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • She halted again and looked at me and at the back of her great eyes gleamed black ice.

    Jaffery | William J. Locke
  • Night fell; the sky became clear as black ice; the dim seas resembled a lair of white bears at play.

    Mushroom Town | Oliver Onions
  • The laugh is still, the noise has fled, and the first sound of the skate on the black ice seems almost a desecration.

    The Hills and the Vale | Richard Jefferies
  • Beyond this we came to a second and wider sheet of hard black ice falling away steeply towards the Sasso Bisolo Glacier.

    Italian Alps | Douglas William Freshfield
  • The slope, which we found hard black ice, was then snow, and was very soon disposed of.

    Italian Alps | Douglas William Freshfield

British Dictionary definitions for black ice

black ice

noun
  1. a thin transparent layer of new ice on a road or similar surface

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012