Frost — Defs

01 n. The act of freezing; -- applied chiefly to the congelation of water; congelation of fluids.

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.” — Shak.
3.
Frozen dew; -- called also hoarfrost or white frost. Also: hoarfrost, white frost
“He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.” — Ps. cxlvii. 16.
4.
Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character.[R.]
“It was of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow wreath.” — Sir W. Scott.

“The brig and the ice round her are covered by a strange black obscurity: it is the frost smoke of arctic winters.” — Kane.

02 v. t. To injure by frost; to freeze, as plants.

imp. & p. p. Frosted; p. pr. & vb. n. Frosting

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.” — Wordsworth.
3.
To roughen or sharpen, as the nail heads or calks of horseshoes, so as to fit them for frosty weather.