Word.ws English Dictionary

duck's frost

duck's frost noun: a slight frost visible in the morning; (jocularly) rain (overnight).

Noun

duck's frost

  1. A slight frost visible in the morning; (jocularly) rain (overnight).
    • The weather most unsuitable is that kind of frost which comes on in the early morning, and is accompanied with some rime on the grass—a duck's frost, just sufficient to check fox-hunting. Every footstep on grass in this condition when the sun comes out burns up as black as if the sole of the boot...1880, Richard Jefferies, The gamekeeper at home, sketches of natural history and rural life [signed R.J.]., page 146
    • A cooler lcimate has prevailed and some frost, but at the time of writing there has been more rain, which in the country is known as a duck's frost. At present there has been little skating, for the ice has been thin and unsafe. When the ponds are well frozen then the land is solid also, and this...1899, The Agricultural Gazette and Modern Farming, page 133

Examples of duck's frost in a sentence

  • The weather most unsuitable is that kind of frost which comes on in the early morning, and is accompanied with some rime on the grass—a duck's frost, just sufficient to check fox-hunting.1880, Richard Jefferies, The gamekeeper at home, sketches of natural history and rural life [signed R.J.]., page 146:
  • A cooler lcimate has prevailed and some frost, but at the time of writing there has been more rain, which in the country is known as a duck's frost.1899, The Agricultural Gazette and Modern Farming, page 133:
  • "Smartish frost and we shall get a duck's frost tonight.2009 July 15, Fred Archer, The Distant Scene, Amberley Publishing Limited, →ISBN:
  • '[…] duck's frost to-night.' Abel looked up absently, humming the air he intended to play next.2025 August 16 [????], Mary Gladys Meredith Webb, Gone to Earth: in large print, BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, page 8:

Forms of duck's frost

alternative formduck-frost

Questions about duck's frost

What does duck's frost mean?
Duck's frost means a slight frost visible in the morning; (jocularly) rain (overnight).
How do you use duck's frost in a sentence?
The weather most unsuitable is that kind of frost which comes on in the early morning, and is accompanied with some rime on the grass—a duck's frost, just sufficient to check fox-hunting.
What part of speech is duck's frost?
Duck's frost is a noun.

Words near duck's frost in the dictionary

  1. duck's arse
  2. duck's ass
  3. duck's breakfast
  4. duck's egg
  5. duck's eye
  6. duck's frost
  7. duck's guts
  8. duck's-bill limpet
  9. duck's-bill limpets
  10. duck's-egg blue
  11. duck's-foot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duck's frost (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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