frost

noun

1. 1

   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. 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. 3

   figurativeColdness 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.

   An LA-based business associate of Harry and Meghan, who live in Montecito, California, told the Telegraph there had been a “warming of the frost” between the king and his youngest son after Harry’s public attacks in his memoir, Spare, and television interviews.

4. 4

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

5. 5

   A shade of white, like that of frost.

6. 6

   datedA disappointment; a cheat.

7. 7

   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.

verb

1. 1

   To cover with frost.

2. 2

   To become covered with frost.

   “The weather is pleasant while it frosted a little at night.”

3. 3

   To coat (something, e.g. a cake) with icing to resemble frost.

4. 4

   informalTo anger or annoy.

   I think the boss's decision frosted him a bit.

5. 5

   To sharpen (the points of a horse's shoe) to prevent it from slipping on ice.

6. 6

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

Forms

plural

frosts

past tense

frosted

past participle

frosted

present participle

frosting

third person singular

frosts