freezing

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Suffering or causing frost.

2. 2

   Very cold.

3. 3

   The freezing point of water, zero degrees celsius.

   • Despite this, the average temperature at the surface [of Mars] is 50–60K below freezing, making it hard to imagine that any plants or animals could survive.
4. ›+ 4 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Aloof, unfriendly.

      • He turned at the door of the inner office and dropped a freezing eye on the offender. "Get those letters copied before you go out to lunch, Binns," he remarked in a sufficiently loud voice.
      • Jeff unconsciously reached out to touch the pewter casket, but was intercepted by the mother. She whisked his hand away with freezing politeness and said simply, "He's gone now."
   2. 5

      The change in state of a substance from liquid to solid by cooling to a critically low…

      The change in state of a substance from liquid to solid by cooling to a critically low temperature.

      • The temp in the mountains may/can fall below freezing at this time of year.
      • Hence, there is a succession of thawings and freezings. The former expand, and endeavour to restore the surface of the ground to its natural condition, while the latter contract and harden it.
      • […] and the sloping collection of fractured rocks—known as talus—that tumbled down from the quartzite bluffs during the repeated freezings and unfreezings of the last Ice Age.
   3. 6

      The action of numbing with anesthetics.

   4. 7

      present participle and gerund of freeze

The neighborhood

• synonymfrosty
• synonymfrigorific
• synonymfrost
• neighborfreeze-dry
• neighborfreezer