pple. and ppl. a. Injured by exposure to frost.
1593. Nashe, Christs Teares, Wks. (Grosart), IV. 181. Farre poorer then poore frost-bitten Snakes. Ibid. (1594), Terrors of Night, ibid., III. 267. [He] like a lanke frost-bitten plant looseth hys vigor.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 21 Dec. A good chine of beef being all frost-bitten, was most of it unroast.
1669. J. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 93. The Leaves also gathered somewhat before they are much frost-bitten.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 250. Some fruits become mellower from having been bruised and frost-bitten.
1865. Dickens, Lett., 1 March (1880), II. 226. I have been laid up here with a frost-bitten foot.
fig. 1622. Mabbe, trans. Alemans Guzman dAlf., II. 34. The Captaine when hee heard me say so, was frost-bitten, and marvelling what the mystery of this roguerie should be, suspected there was some knaverie in it, though he knew not what.
1634. Ford, P. Warbeck, IV. v. Lady, I return But barren crops of early protestations, Frost-bitten in the spring of fruitless hopes.
1891. C. James, Rom. Rigmarole, 60. Shes ad what I may call a frost-bitten life of it.
b. Frost-bitten asphyxy (see quot.).
182234. Goods Study Med. (ed. 4), III. 435. Frost-bitten Asphyxy, or that produced by intense cold.