Frost

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Frost, n. [OE. frost, forst, AS. forst, frost. fr. freósan to freeze; akin to D. varst, G., OHG., Icel., Dan., & Sw. frost. √18. See Freeze, v. i.].

•  The act of freezing; -- applied chiefly to the congelation of water; congelation of fluids.  [1913 Webster]
•  The state or temperature of the air which occasions congelation, or the freezing of water; severe cold or freezing weather.  [1913 Webster]

  "The third bay comes a frost, a killing frost."  [1913 Webster]
•  Frozen dew; -- called also hoarfrost or white frost.  [1913 Webster]

  "He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes."  [1913 Webster]
•  Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character.  [1913 Webster]

  "It was of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow wreath."  [1913 Webster]

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

Frost, v. t. 

•  To injure by frost; to freeze, as plants.  [1913 Webster]
•  To cover with hoarfrost; to produce a surface resembling frost upon, as upon cake, metals, or glass; as, glass may be frosted by exposure to hydrofluoric acid.  [1913 Webster]

  "While with a hoary light she frosts the ground."  [1913 Webster]
•  To roughen or sharpen, as the nail heads or calks of horseshoes, so as to fit them for frosty weather.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Frost, n. & v.
--n.
1 a (also white frost) a white frozen dew coating esp. the ground at night (windows covered with frost). b a consistent temperature below freezing-point causing frost to form.
2 a chilling dispiriting atmosphere.
3 sl. a failure.
--v.
1 intr. (usu. foll. by over, up) become covered with frost.
2 tr. a cover with or as if with frost, powder, etc. b injure (a plant etc.) with frost.
3 tr. give a roughened or finely granulated surface to (glass, metal) (frosted glass).
4 tr. US cover or decorate (a cake etc.) with icing.

Idiom

black frost a frost without white dew. degrees of frost Brit. degrees below freezing-point (ten degrees of frost tonight). frost-work tracery made by frost on glass etc.

Derivative

frostless adj.

Etymology

OE f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Frost

Jack Frost, benumb, besnow, bite, bitter weather, black frost, blanch, bleach, bleak weather, bomb, bust, cap, chalk, chill, chilliness, climax, cold snap, cold wave, cold weather, coldness, consummate, coolness, crest, crown, culminate, cut, depth of winter, disaffinity, dull thud, enmity, etiolate, fizzle, flat failure, flop, floperoo, freeze, freezing weather, frost line, frost over, frost smoke, frostbite, go through, grizzle, hail, hard winter, head, hoar, hoarfrost, ice, ice over, ice up, iciness, incompatibility, incompatibleness, inhospitality, inimicality, killing frost, lemon, nip, numb, outtop, overarch, overtop, peak, penetrate, personal conflict, pierce, raw weather, refrigerate, rime, rime frost, sharp frost, silver, sleet, snap, snow, snow in, snow under, strain, subzero weather, surmount, tension, tip, top, top off, total loss, turkey, unamiability, uncordiality, unfriendliness, ungeniality, unsociability, washout, white, white frost, whiten, winter, wintry weather, wintry wind, zero weather

ROGET THESAURUS

Frost

Cold

N cold, coldness, frigidity, inclemency, fresco, winter, depth of winter, hard winter, Siberia, Nova Zembla, wind- chill factor, ice, snow, snowflake, snow crystal, snow drift, sleet, hail, hailstone, rime, frost, hoar frost, white frost, hard frost, sharp frost, barf, glaze, lolly, icicle, thick-ribbed ice, fall of snow, heavy fall, iceberg, icefloe, floe berg, glacier, nev_ee, serac, pruina, freezing mixture, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, chilliness, chill, shivering, goose skin, horripilation, rigor, chattering of teeth, numbness, frostbite, cold, cool, chill, chilly, icy, gelid, frigid, algid, fresh, keen, bleak, raw, inclement, bitter, biting, niveous, cutting, nipping, piercing, pinching, clay-cold, starved, chilled to the bone, shivering, aguish, transi de froid, frostbitten, frost-bound, frost-nipped, cold as a stone, cold as marble, cold as lead, cold as iron, cold as a frog, cold as charity, cold as Christmas, cool as a cucumber, cool as custard, icy, glacial, frosty, freezing, pruinose, wintry, brumal, hibernal, boreal, arctic, Siberian, hyemal, hyperborean, hyperboreal, icebound, frozen out, unwarmed, unthawed, lukewarm, tepid, isocheimal, isocheimenal, isocheimic, frozen, numb, frost-bitten, coldly, bitterly, pierre fendre.