Forms: 1 frost, forst, 2–5 forst(e, 3 south. vorst, 5 froste, (4 wrost, froist, 7 froast), 4– frost. [Com. Teut.: OE. frost, usually forst, str. masc., corresponds to OFris. frost, forst, OS. frost (MDu. vorst masc. and fem., mod. Du. fem. only), OHG. frost (MHG. vrost, mod.Ger. frost) str. masc., ON. frost neut. (Sw., Da. frost masc.):—OTeut. *frusto-, f. weak-grade of the root of *freusan to FREEZE.]
1. The act or state of freezing or becoming frozen; the temperature of the atmosphere when it is below the freezing-point of water; extreme cold. Often used with qualifying adj. as hard, sharp, etc. frost. Black frost: frost not accompanied by rime; opposed to white frost (see sense 2). Also personified in Jack Frost.
† Below frost: below freezing-point (obs.). (Ten, etc.) degrees of frost: degrees below freezing-point.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 485. Gelum, frost.
a. 1000. Phoenix, 58. Se hearda forst.
a. 1113. O. E. Chron. an. 1110. Treow wæsstmas wurdon þære nihte þurh forste swiðe for numene.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 35. Ic walde fein pinian and sitten on forste and on snawe up et mine chinne.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 524. Wane niȝtes cumeth longe, And bringeth forstes starke an stronge.
1382. Wyclif, Dan. iii. 69. Byndynge frost [1388 Blac forst] and colde, blers ȝe to the Lord.
c. 1450. Merlin, 149. Thei cloded hem warme as thei myght, for the froste was grete.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cclxxxvi. 428. They went a seuyn leages afote … and it was harde frost, wherby they cutte their fete.
1576. A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 395. The Winter Frostes doe not alwayes indure: no more should your greefe heauines and anguish be continual.
1647. Cowley, Mistress, Bathing in the River, iv.
| Then tell her what your Pride doth cost, | |
| And, how your Use and Beauty’s lost, | |
| When rig’rous Winter binds you up with Frost. |
1694. Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 207. The Days in Summer being excessive hot, and the Nights sharp Frosts, even to an inch thickness in the Ponds.
1715. Desaguliers, Fires Impr., 47. The Liquor subsided to 18 degrees, which was two Degrees below Frost.
1804. J. Grahame, The Sabbath, 214.
| As when a waveless lake, | |
| In which the wintry stars all bright appear, | |
| Is sheeted by a nightly frost with ice. |
1847. A. M. Gilliam, Trav. Mexico, 9. News having reached Cincinnati that welcome Jack Frost had visited the city of New Orleans, I found hundreds who like myself had but impatiently awaited tidings of that that hoary benefactor.
1851. Hawthorne, Twice-told T., Ser. II. Shaker Bridal. The hoarfrost, and the blackfrost, hath done its work on Brother Adam.
b. viewed as an agent which penetrates and freezes the contained moisture of a porous substance, esp. the ground.
1694. Acc. Sev. Late Voy., II. (1711), 27. The frost cannot penetrate far into such Ground.
18[?]. C. D. Warner, Spring in New Eng. (Cent. Dict.). In the shade there is still frost in the ground.
1891. S. C. Scrivener, Our Fields & Cities, 139. Frost will penetrate eight inches, sometimes more.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 5 April, 3/2. A sheep’s carcass is small; you can get the frost out of it as soon as you require it.
† c. Proverb. (Cf. farewell fieldfare.) Obs.
c. 1590. Play Sir Thomas More (1844), 52. Why, farewell, frost.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt. (Percy Soc.), 43. Nich. Farewell, frost.
1670. Ray, Prov., 174. Farewel frost, nothing got nor nothing lost.
2. Frozen dew or vapor. More fully hoar(y, rime, or white frost.
a. 1000. Riddles, lxxxviii. 8 (Gr.). Hwilum hara scoc forst of feaxe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6520. Manna … fel fra lift sa gret plente, Als a grideld frost to se.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, lxxvii. 52. Þaire mours [Vulg. moros] … he sloghe in ryme froist.
1382. Wyclif, Dan. iii. 68. Dewis and whyt frost, blesse ȝe to the Lord.
1563. W. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 54. Hoare frost or white frost is nothing else, but dew congealed by over much cold.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 809. Seed-time and Harvest, Heat and hoary Frost, Shall hold their course.
1704. Pope, Winter, 9.
| Behold the groves that shine with silver frost, | |
| Their beauty wither’d, and their verdure lost. |
1739. T. Smith, Jrnl. (1849), 268. Last night there was a very white frost, that killed the tops of our potatoes.
1832. Tennyson, New Year’s Eve, iv. There’s not a flower on all the hills: the frost is on the pane.
† b. Frozen water, ice. Obs.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xiv. 61. Anoþer water þat on nyghtes fresez hard, and on days es na frost sene þeron.
1580. J. Frampton, Monarde’s Dial. of Yron & Steele, 169. These waters which doe proceed of snow and of frost being cleane, doe not differ from the goodnesse of other waters. Ibid., 170. With a piece of frost, chewing it continually.
3. fig.
c. 1200. Ormin, 12655. To shridenn uss þærwiþþ onnȝæn þe frosst off fakenn trowwþe.
1595. in Caxton’s Blanchardyn and Eglantine (E.E.T.S.), 214. A cloudie mist began to obscure their brightest sonshine, and a frost of cares to ouer runne their summers blisse.
1769. Sir W. Jones, Pal. Fortune, Poems (1777), 22.
| Next to the shrine advanc’d a reverend sage, | |
| Whose beard was hoary with the frost of age. |
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. xx. 225. The Renaissance frosts came, and all perished.
b. esp. Of a person: Coldness of behavior or temperament, frigidity; also slang, a ‘coolness.’
1635. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Banish’d Virg., 141. The difference betweene a woman of frost and one of fire.
1720. Humourist, 99. But with all this Shyness, Frost, and Virtue … my Friend finds her as willing a Tit [etc.].
1815. Scott, Guy M., lv. One of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow wreath.
1886. Mallock, Old Order Changes, II. 256. He could not … keep a slight frost from his manner.
1891. Miss S. J. Duncan, Amer. Girl Lond., 196. There’s a frost on—we don’t play with each other any more!
c. Sc. (See quot. 1825–80.)
a. 1757. Gil Morrice, x., in Child, Ballads, IV. lxxxiii. (1886), 272. Sen ye by me will nae be warnd, In it ye sall find frost.
1825–80. Jamieson, Frost, difficulty; to fin’ frost, to meet with difficulties, Banffs.
4. slang (originally Theatr.). A failure.
1886. Stage Gossip, 70. When a piece ‘goes’ badly, it is called, a ‘frost.’
1891. I. Zangwill, Bachelors’ Club, 209. This last book … is a regular frost.
1896. Quarterly Review, CLXXXIV. Oct., 538. Even the more intelligent Boers, such as President Krüger, imagined for a long time that the Randt mines would, in mining phrase, ‘turn out a frost,’ and held, with considerable show of reason, that as soon as the gold-bearing ore gave out the British seekers after gold would disappear as rapidly as they had arrived.
† 5. a. A color like that of hoarfrost; silver-grey. b. Gold or silver frost-work; cf. frost-button. Obs.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 83. The colour for the most part, frost upon green, intermixt with Carnation, and upon edges of the leaves, teeth like those upon Sawes, and these are pure incarnadine.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3810/8. All Gold and Silver Plate shall be spun close on well boiled and light died Silk only, (Frost excepted).
† 6. ? = CALK sb.1 2. Obs.
1718. S. Sewall, Diary, 19 Jan. (1882), III. 161. Great Rain, and very Slippery: was fain to wear Frosts. Ibid., 5 Feb., III. 165. Had like to have fallen grievously, by reason of my Frosts, on the Steps in the night: but recover’d. (Note, Probably the caulks or else the mocassins of those days, which were in use till quite recently by aged people.)
7. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib., as frost-diamond, -giant, -mark, -power, -scene, -time, -wind, -wound, -wreath; also frost-like adj.
1868. Ld. Houghton, Select. fr. Wks., A Christmas Story, 215.
| *Frost-diamonds twinkle on the grass, | |
| Transformed from pearly dew, | |
| And silver flowers encrust the glass, | |
| Which gardens never knew. |
1889. R. B. Anderson, trans. Rydberg’s Teut. Mythol., 134. He is the son of Thor, the divine foe of the *frost-giants.
1832. Tennyson, Palace Art, xiii. From shadow’d grots of arches interlaced, And tipt with *frost-like spires.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xix. 193. Not an icicle or even a *frost-mark was to be seen on the roof.
1889. R. B. Anderson, trans. Rydberg’s Teut. Mythol., 138. Although the Teutonic patriarch finally succumbs in the war which he waged against the Thjasse-race and the *frost-powers led by Thjasse’s kinsmen, still the results of his work are permanent.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 182, ¶ 1. We shall not shortly have so much as a Landskip or *Frost-Scene to refresh ourselves.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 467. Longe aftirward, in frosty time [v. r. *frost tyme], Iulian was wery, and reste hym aboute mydnyȝt.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxiii. A sharp *frost-wind, which made itself heard and felt from time to time.
1820. Keats, Eve St. Agnes, xxxvi.
| The frost-wind blows | |
| Like Love’s alarum pattering the sharp sleet | |
| Against the window-panes; St. Agnes’ moon hath set. |
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. iii. 45. One [suffering] from *frost-wounds.
1872. Bryant, Little People of Snow, 349. Around that little grave, in the long night, *Frost-wreaths were laid.
b. instrumental, as frost-beaded, -bound, -burnt, -chequered, -concocted, -congealed, -fettered, -firmed, -kibed, -rent, -riven, -tempered adjs.
1842. Faber, Styrian Lake, etc., 122. The white *frost-beaded grass.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 154.
| So stood the brittle prodigy, though smooth | |
| And slipp’ry the materials, yet *frost-bound | |
| Firm as a rock. |
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., IV. i.
| When I came here from Rome, | |
| Among the Alps, all through one frost-bound dawn. |
1770. Armstrong, Misc., I. 152. Whipping the *frost-burnt villagers to the bones.
a. 1847. Eliza Cook, To the Robin, vii.
| I stood with delight by the *frost-chequer’d pane, | |
| And whispered, ‘See, see, Bobby comes!’ | |
| While I fondly enticed him again and again | |
| With the handful of savoury crumbs. |
1726–46. Thomson, Winter, 707. The *frost-concocted glebe Draws in abundant vegetable soul.
1877. Longf., Wapentake.
| nor will I keep concealed, | |
| And voiceless as a rivulet *frost-congealed, | |
| My admiration for thy verse divine. |
1811. E. Lysaght, Poems, 1. The *frost-fettered rivers no longer can flow.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 875. For when her Troops of wandring Cranes forsake *Frost firméd Strymon.
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., I. iii.
| At least you know your place,—to take to cloisters, | |
| And there sit carding wool, and mumbling Latin, | |
| With sour old maids, and maundering Magdalens, | |
| Proud of your *frost-kibed feet, and dirty serge. |
1806. J. Grahame, Birds Scotl., 84.
| Firm on her perch, | |
| Her ancient and accustomed rock, she sits, | |
| With wing-couched head, and, to the morning light, | |
| Appears a *frost-rent fragment, coped with snow. |
1873. J. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age, v. 58. A heap of *frost-riven débris.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. i. 16. My thoughts recal the *frost-tempered junks of this pachydermoid amphibion.
c. Special comb.: frost-bearer = CRYOPHORUS; frost-bird (see quot.); frost-blite, the plant Chenopodium album (see quot.); frost blue (see quot.); frost-bow (see quot.); † frost-brained a., dull, stupid; frost-button, a button with a frosted surface; frost-cog (see quot.); frost-dew, hoar-frost, rime; frost-fall (see quot.); frost-fern, a fern-like figure produced by the freezing of a moist surface; frost-fish, (a) the Tomcod, Microgadus tomcodus, so called from its appearing on the coast of N. America as the frost sets in; (b) the scabbard-fish, Lepidopus caudatus; frost-fix v., to fix with frost; frost-fog = frost-mist; frost-grape, an American species of the vine Vitis cordifolia or riparia; frost-hoar a., covered with hoar frost; frost-itch, -lamp (see quots.); frost-line (after snow-line), the limit of frost; frost-mist, mist caused by the freezing of vapor in the atmosphere; frost-nail sb., a nail driven into the shoe to prevent slipping in frosty weather; so frost-nail v., to put frost-nails in the shoes; frost-piece, a person of cold behavior or disposition; frost-rime = frost-smoke; frost-root, the common fleabane of the U.S., Erigeron philadelphicus (Cent. Dict.); frost-shod pple., shod with frost-nails; also fig.; frost-smoke (see quot. 1867); frost-split (see quot.); frost-stud = frost-nail sb.; frost-valve (see quot.); frost-weed, -wort, the plant Helianthemum canadense, sometimes used as an astringent or aromatic tonic; so called because, late in autumn, crystals of ice shoot from the cracked bark at the root (W.). Also FROST-BITE, -BITTEN, FROST-NIP, -NIPPED, FROST-WORK.
1826. *Frost-bearer [see CRYOPHORUS].
1848. H. W. Herbert, Field Sports in U. S., II. 58. The American Golden Plover … is better known to our gunners by the name of *‘Frost Bird,’ so called from being more plentiful during the early frosts in autumn.
1835. Booth, Analyt. Dict., *Frost-blite.
1863. Prior, Plant-n., Frost-blite, a blite whitened as by hoar-frost, Chenopodium album.
1873. Weale’s Dict. Arch. (ed. 4), *Frost blue, a coarse variety of smalt.
1863. Home Walks, 20. A *frostbow appeared, resembling in all respects a rainbow, except that it was of a lustrous white.
1592. Nobody & Someb., in Simpson, Sch. Shaks. (1878), I. 300. But he, *frost-braind, will not be obtaind To take upon him this Realmes government.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2192/4. A good cloth Coat … trim’d with a silver and silk *frost Button. Ibid. (1711), No. 4912/4. A dark Grey Suit of Cloaths, trim’d with Gold Frost Buttons.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., 358/2. *Frost Cog. A toe or projection on a horse shoe to keep the animal from slipping on ice or frozen ground.
1826. Scott, Woodst., xxviii. My pumps are full of this “frost-dew.
1879. Miss Bird, Rocky Mount., I. 295. That curious phenomena [sic] called *frost-fall was occurring, in which, whatever moisture may exist in the air, somehow aggregates into feathers and fern-leaves, the loveliest of creations, only seen in rarefied air and intense cold.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), II. xiv. 358. When it [water] runs into *frost-ferns upon a window pane.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), 36.
| Th’ *Frost fish and the Smelt, | |
| As good as ever lady Gustus felt. |
1795. J. Sullivan, Hist. Maine, 21. The people have tom cod, or what they call frost fish … in great plenty.
1880. Günther, Introd. Study Fishes, 435. The Scabbard-fish (Lepidopus caudatus) … is well known in New Zealand, where it is called ‘Frost-fish.’
1890. J. Habberton, Out at Twinnett’s, 50. One warm Summer morning the Captain rolled slowly up the shady business street, with a string of frost fish in one hand and a lighted pipe in the other.
1800. Hurdis, The Favourite Village, I. 15.
| When did the God, departing, with a frown | |
| Congeal and *frost-fix your [mountain’s] prodigious limbs, | |
| Leaving remembrance, which no time shall ’rase, | |
| Of ire omnipotent here dealt around? |
1813. Scott, Trierm., I. iii. The sun was struggling with *frost-fog grey.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., Chicken Grape, the River Grape, or Vitis riparia; also called *Frost Grape.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, iv. What strength of hope under the ice-bound waters and *frost-hoar fields of that year’s winter!
1894. Duane, Student’s Dict. Med., Pruritus hiemalis, winter itch, *frost-itch.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 918/2. *Frost-lamp. An oil-lamp placed beneath the oil-tube of an Argand lamp to keep the oil in a flowing condition on cold nights.
1865. Whittier, Snow-Bound, 160. While the red logs before us beat The *frost-line back with tropic heat.
1814. Scott, Wav., xlvi. A *frost-mist rising from the ocean, covered the eastern horizon.
1611. Cotgr., Ferré a glace, shod with *frost-nayles.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 918/2. Frost-nail. A roughing nail driven into a horse’s shoe in slippery weather.
1594. Plat, The Jewell House of Art and Nature, II. 26. If I slip, you shall see how I will *frostnayle my selfe the nexte time that I ride abroade.
1673. Lond. Gaz., No. 753/3. His Highness hath caused all the Horse of his Guard to be Frost-nailed.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, xxxi. The little hold I have in the heart of this charming *frost-piece.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxi. Away, villain, and marshal in this fair frost-piece.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., I. 434. *Frost-rime or frost-smoke … consists of a dense frozen vapour, apparently arising out of the sea or any large sheet of water.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xiii. 354. To say truth, it [self murder] is a meate a man must swallow without chewing, vnlesse his throate be *frost-shod [Fr. ferré à glace].
1765. Smollett, Trav., xxxviii. (1766), II. 216. The mules … were frost-shod for the occasion.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. xxi. 136. In those forlorn regions round the poles … the sea smokes like an oven, and a fog arises which mariners call the *frost smoke.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Frost-smoke, a thick mist in high latitudes, arising from the surface of the sea when exposed to a temperature much below freezing; when the vapours as they rise are condensed either into a thick fog, or, with the thermometer about zero, hug the water in eddying white wreaths.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Frost split, a phrase used by our farmers to express such trees as have large cracks in their trunks and branches.
1895. Times, 21 Jan., 13/6. The sudden change in the weather has checked the demand for skates, *frost studs, and heating apparatus.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., 358/2. *Frost Valve. A valve which opens to allow water to escape from the portion of the pipe or pump where it is liable to be frozen.
1866. Treas. Bot., *Frost-weed. Helianthemum canadense.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., *Frostwort (Cistus canadensis), a medicinal plant prepared by the Shakers, and used for its astringent and tonic properties.
