frost

noun
/fɹɒst/UK/fɹɔst/US/fɹɑst/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *prews- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *prustós Proto-Germanic *frustaz Proto-West Germanic *frost Old English frost Middle English frost English frost Inherited from Middle English frost, from an unmetathesized variant of Old English forst (“frost”), from Proto-Germanic *frustaz (“frost”), from Proto-Indo-European *prews- (“to freeze; frost”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Froast, Fröäst (“frost”), West Frisian froast (“frost”), Cimbrian bròst, vrost, vròst (“frost”), Dutch vorst (“frost”), German Frost (“frost”), Luxembourgish Frascht (“frost”), Vilamovian fröst (“frost”), Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish frost (“frost”), Latin pruīna (“hoarfrost, frost, rime, snow”). Related to freeze.

  1. derived from *prews- — “to freeze; frost
  2. inherited from *frustaz
  3. inherited from forst
  4. inherited from frost

Definitions

  1. A cover of minute ice crystals on objects that are exposed to the air. Frost is formed by…

    A cover of minute ice crystals on objects that are exposed to the air. Frost is formed by the same process as dew, except that the temperature of the frosted object is below freezing.

  2. The cold weather that causes these ice crystals to form.

    • Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.
    • It is more probable, in almost every country of Europe, that there will be frost sometime in January, than that the weather will continue open throughout that whole month;
  3. Coldness or insensibility

    Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character.

    • It was one of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow-wreath.
    • Up to that time the girl had never really done her hair, and she regarded boots merely as things to protect the feet. Suddenly it dawned on her that she was considered plain and that she diffused an atmosphere of intellectual frost.
  4. + 12 more definitions
    1. The act of freezing

      The act of freezing; the congelation of water or other liquid.

    2. A shade of white, like that of frost.

    3. A disappointment

      A disappointment; a cheat.

    4. A kind of light diffuser.

      • Frosts and diffusion are flame retardant and produce similar results except that some of the frosts are very subtle in their effects. For example: Hamburg Frost will soften the beam edge with little additional spread of the beam.
    5. To cover with frost.

    6. To become covered with frost.

      • “The weather is pleasant while it frosted a little at night.”
    7. To coat (something, e.g. a cake) with icing to resemble frost.

    8. To anger or annoy.

      • I think the boss's decision frosted him a bit.
    9. To sharpen (the points of a horse's shoe) to prevent it from slipping on ice.

    10. To bleach individual strands of hair while leaving adjacent strands untouched.

    11. A surname.

    12. A number of places in the United States

      A number of places in the United States:

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at frost. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01frost02crystals03crystal04ice05frozen06freezing

A definitional loop anchored at frost. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

6 hops · closes at frost

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA