Frost
Frost (frost; 115) , noun
[Old English frost, forst, Anglo-Saxon forst, frost. from freósan to freeze; akin to Dutch varst, German, Old High German, Icelandic, Danish, & Swedish frost. r18. 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.
3.
Frozen dew; -- called also hoarfrost or white frost.
He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.
4.
Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character. [Rare]
It was of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow wreath.
The brig and the ice round her are covered by a strange black
obscurity: it is the frost smoke of arctic winters.
Frost , transitive verb
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; as, glass may be frosted by exposure to hydrofluoric acid.
While with a hoary light she frosts the ground.
3.
To roughen or sharpen, as the nail heads or calks of horseshoes, so as to fit them for frosty weather.