Frost (?), v. t. [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.
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.
Frost (fr&obreve;st; 115), n. [OE. frost,
forst, AS. forst, frost. fr. freósan to freeze; akin to D.
varst, G., OHG., Icel., Dan., & Sw. frost.
√18. 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.
Shak.
3. Frozen dew; -- called also hoarfrost or 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. Black frost, cold so intense as
to freeze vegetation and cause it to turn black, without the formation of hoarfrost. -- Frost
bearer (Physics), a philosophical
instrument illustrating the freezing of water in a vacuum; a cryophorus. -- Frost grape (Bot.), an American grape, with very small, acid berries. --
Frost lamp, a lamp placed below the oil
tube of an
Argand lamp to keep the oil
limpid on cold nights; -- used especially in
lighthouses. Knight. -- Frost nail, a nail with a sharp head
driven into a horse's shoe to keep
him from slipping. -- Frost smoke, an appearance resembling smoke, caused by congelation of vapor in the
atmosphere in time of severe cold.
The brig and the ice round her are
covered by a strange black
obscurity: it is the frost smoke of arctic winters.
Kane. -- Frost valve, a valve to drain the portion of a
pipe, hydrant, pump, etc., where water would be liable to
freeze. -- Jack Frost, a popular personification of frost.
Hear it pronounced