frost definition | Dictionary.com

frost

[frawst, frost]

–noun

1.	a degree or state of coldness sufficient to cause the freezing of water.

2.	Also called hoarfrost. a covering of minute ice needles, formed from the atmosphere at night upon the ground and exposed objects when they have cooled by radiation below the dew point, and when the dew point is below the freezing point.

3.	the act or process of freezing.

4.	coldness of manner or temperament: We noticed a definite frost in his greeting.

5.	Informal. a coolness between persons.

6.	Informal. something that meets with lack of enthusiasm, as a theatrical performance or party; failure; flop.

7.	a milk shake, frappe, or similar drink: a chocolate frost.

–verb (used with object)

8.	to cover with frost.

9.	to give a frostlike surface to (glass, metal, etc.).

10.	to ice (a cake, cookies, etc.).

11.	to bleach selected strands of (a person's hair) in order to create highlights.

12.	to kill or injure by frost: a freezing rain that badly frosted the tomato plants.

13.	to make angry: I was frosted by his critical comment.

–verb (used without object)

14.	to become covered with frost or freeze (often fol. by up or over): The windshield has frosted over.

15.	(of varnish, paint, etc.) to dry with a film resembling frost.

—Idiom

16.	degree of frost, British. the degree of temperature Fahrenheit below the freezing point: 10 degrees of frost is equivalent to 22°F.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME, OE frost, forst; c. OS, OHG, ON frost; akin to freeze

Related forms:

frostless, adjective

frostlike, adjective

Synonyms:
4. aloofness, coolness, distance, remoteness.

Frost

[frawst, frost]

–noun

Robert (Lee), 1874–1963, U.S. poet.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To frost

frost (frôst, frŏst)

A deposit of minute ice crystals formed when water vapor condenses at a temperature below freezing.
A temperature low enough to cause freezing.
The process of freezing.
A cold or icy manner.

v. frost·ed, frost·ing, frosts

v. tr.

To cover with frost.
To damage or kill by frost.
To cover (glass, for example) with a roughened or speckled decorative surface.
To cover or decorate with icing: frost a cake.
Slang To anger or upset: What really frosted me about the incident was the fact that you lied.

v. intr.
To become covered with or as if with frost.

[Middle English, from Old English; see preus- in Indo-European roots.]

Frost (frôst, frŏst)

American poet whose deceptively simple works, often set in rural New England, explore the relationships between individuals and between people and nature. His collections include A Boy's Will (1913) and In the Clearing (1962). He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1924, 1931, 1937, and 1943.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Frost

Frost\, n. [OE. frost, forst, AS. forst, frost. fr. fre['o]san to freeze; akin to D. varst, G., OHG., Icel., Dan., & Sw. frost. [root]18. See Freeze, v. i.]

1. The act of freezing; -- applied chiefly to the congelation of water; congelation of fluids.

2. The state or temperature of the air which occasions congelation, or the freezing of water; severe cold or freezing weather.

The third bay comes a frost, a killing frost. --Shak.

3. Frozen dew; -- called also hoarfrost or white frost.

He scattereth the frost like ashes. --Ps. cxlvii. 16.

4. Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character. [R.]

It was of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow wreath. --Sir W. Scott.

Black frost, cold so intense as to freeze vegetation and cause it to turn black, without the formation of hoarfrost.

Frost bearer (Physics), a philosophical instrument illustrating the freezing of water in a vacuum; a cryophous.

Frost grape (Bot.), an American grape, with very small, acid berries.

Frost lamp, a lamp placed below the oil tube of an Argand lamp to keep the oil limpid on cold nights; -- used especially in lighthouses. --Knight.

Frost nail, a nail with a sharp head driven into a horse's shoe to keen him from slipping.

Frost smoke, an appearance resembling smoke, caused by congelation of vapor in the atmosphere in time of severe cold.

The brig and the ice round her are covered by a strange black obscurity: it is the frost smoke of arctic winters. --Kane.

Frost valve, a valve to drain the portion of a pipe, hydrant, pump, etc., where water would be liable to freeze.

Jack Frost, a popular personification of frost.

Frost

Frost\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Frostted; p. pr. & vb. n. Frosting.]

1. To injure by frost; to freeze, as plants.

2. To cover with hoarfrost; to produce a surface resembling frost upon, as upon cake, metals, or glass.

While with a hoary light she frosts the ground. --Wordsworth.

3. To roughen or sharpen, as the nail heads or calks of horseshoes, so as to fit them for frosty weather.

Language Translation for : frost

Spanish: escarcha,

German: der Frost,

Japanese: 霜

More Translations »

frost

O.E. forst, frost "a freezing, becoming frozen, extreme cold," from P.Gmc. *frusta- (cf. O.H.G. frost, Du. vorst), related to freosan "to freeze." Frost-bitten first recorded 1593. Frosting in the sense of "cake icing" is from 1858.

frost (frôst)
n.
A deposit of minute ice crystals formed when water vapor condenses at a temperature below freezing.

frost (frôst) Pronunciation Key
A deposit of tiny, white ice crystals on a surface. Frost forms through sublimation, when water vapor in the air condenses at a temperature below freezing. It gets its white color from tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice crystals. See more at dew point.

Frost

(Heb. kerah, from its smoothness) Job 37:10 (R.V., "ice"); Gen. 31:40; Jer. 36:30; rendered "ice" in Job 6:16, 38:29; and "crystal" in Ezek. 1:22. "At the present day frost is entirely unknown in the lower portions of the valley of the Jordan, but slight frosts are sometimes felt on the sea-coast and near Lebanon." Throughout Western Asia cold frosty nights are frequently succeeded by warm days. "Hoar frost" (Heb. kephor, so called from its covering the ground) is mentioned in Ex. 16:14; Job 38:29; Ps. 147:16. In Ps. 78:47 the word rendered "frost" (R.V. marg., "great hail-stones"), _hanamal_, occurs only there. It is rendered by Gesenius, the Hebrew lexicographer, "ant," and so also by others, but the usual interpretation derived from the ancient versions may be maintained.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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