frost
Meanings
- 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.
- The cold weather that causes these ice crystals to form.
- Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character.
- The act of freezing; the congelation of water or other liquid.
- A shade of white, like that of frost.
- A disappointment; a cheat.
- A kind of light diffuser.
- To cover with frost.
- To become covered with frost.
- To coat (something, e.g. a cake) with icing to resemble frost.
- To anger or annoy.
- To sharpen (the points of a horse's shoe) to prevent it from slipping on ice.
- To bleach individual strands of hair while leaving adjacent strands untouched.
- A surname.
- A number of places in the United States:
- An unincorporated community in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
- A township in Clare County, Michigan.
- A minor city in Faribault County, Minnesota.
- An unincorporated community in Athens County, Ohio.
- A minor city in Navarro County, Texas.
- An unincorporated community in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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.