frost

UK/fɹɒst//fɹɔst/

frost noun: a cover of minute ice crystals on objects that are exposed to the air. Frost is formed by the same process as dew, except that the temperature of the frosted object is below freezing.

Image: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

frost (countable and uncountable, plural frosts)

A cover of minute ice crystals on objects that are exposed to the air. Frost is formed by the same process as dew, except that the temperature of the frosted object is below freezing.
The cold weather that causes these ice crystals to form.
- Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:40
- It is more probable, in almost every country of Europe, that there will be frost sometime in January, than that the weather will continue open throughout that whole month;1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 47
(figuratively) Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character.
- It was one of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow-wreath.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown...
- Up to that time the girl had never really done her hair, and she regarded boots merely as things to protect the feet. Suddenly it dawned on her that she was considered plain and that she diffused an atmosphere of intellectual frost.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
(obsolete) The act of freezing; the congelation of water or other liquid.
A shade of white, like that of frost.
(dated, slang) A disappointment; a cheat.
A kind of light diffuser.
- Frosts and diffusion are flame retardant and produce similar results except that some of the frosts are very subtle in their effects. For example: Hamburg Frost will soften the beam edge with little additional spread of the beam.2013, Alan Bermingham, Location Lighting for Television, pages 9–26

Verb

frost (third-person singular simple present frosts, present participle frosting, simple past and past participle frosted)

(transitive) To cover with frost.
(intransitive) To become covered with frost.
- “The weather is pleasant while it frosted a little at night.”1975, Brian W. Blouet, Merlin P. Lawson, editors, Images of the Plains: The Role of Human Nature in Settlement, University of Nebraska Press, page 142
(transitive) To coat (something, e.g. a cake) with icing to resemble frost.
(informal, transitive) To anger or annoy.
- I think the boss's decision frosted him a bit.
(transitive) To sharpen (the points of a horse's shoe) to prevent it from slipping on ice.
(transitive) To bleach individual strands of hair while leaving adjacent strands untouched.

Proper noun capitalized: Frost

Frost (countable and uncountable, plural Frosts)

A surname.
- A video filmed and shared on the social media site Bluesky by Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost, also a Democrat, shows Hairfield outside the building and several officers from the federal Department of Homeland Security behind the doors, labeled “All Access Entrance.”2025 February 7, Alex Baumhardt, “Oregon Rep. Bonamici among electeds inexplicably locked out of U.S. Education Department”, in Oregon Capital Chronicle, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2025
An unincorporated community in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
A township in Clare County, Michigan.
A minor city in Faribault County, Minnesota.
An unincorporated community in Athens County, Ohio.
A minor city in Navarro County, Texas.
An unincorporated community in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

frost meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

frost in Hindi

cover of minute ice crystals: तुषार tuṣār
cold weather that would cause frost: पाला pālā

frost in Tamil

உறைபனி, பனியின் உறைநிலை

frost in Urdu

پالا

frost in Bengali

হিম, তুষার, তুহিন, হতাশা, জমিয়া যাওয়া অবস্থা, হিমায়িত অবস্থা

More languagesFewer languages

frost in Telugu: హిమము himamu
frost in Malayalam: തുഷാരം tuṣāraṁ, നീഹാരം nīhāraṁ
frost in Kannada: ಕುಳಿರ್ kuḷir
frost in Punjabi: ਕੱਕਰ kakkar, کَکَّر kakkar
frost in Sanskrit: हिम himá
frost in Assamese: নিয়ৰ nir
frost in Tagalog: eskartsa, yamog, andap
frost in Arabic: صَقِيع ṣaqīʕ, صَقْعَة ṣaqʕa
frost in Malay: ibun
frost in Persian: هسر hasar, یخبندان yaxbandân, سرما sarmâ
frost in Thai: น้ำค้างแข็ง nám káang kɛ̌ɛng
frost in Vietnamese: sương giá, băng giá

Examples of frost in a sentence

A hardy plant is one that can withstand the extremes of climate, such as frost.
The seedlings appeared to be coming along nicely until a late frost killed them.
The uninsulated water pipes must be installed below the frost line to prevent them from freezing.

All 40 example sentences with frost

Forms of frost

Noun
plural	frosts
alternative form (obsolete)	froste
Verb
third-person singular present	frosts
present participle	frosting
past participle	frosted
past	frosted
Proper noun
plural	Frosts

Past tense of frost: frosted

Plural of frost: frosts

Origin of frost

From Middle English frost, from an unmetathesized variant of Old English forst (“frost”), from Proto-Germanic *frustaz (“frost”), from Proto-Indo-European *prews- (“to freeze; frost”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Froast, Fröäst (“frost”), West Frisian froast (“frost”), Cimbrian bròst, vrost, vròst (“frost”), Dutch vorst (“frost”), German Frost (“frost”), Luxembourgish Frascht (“frost”), Vilamovian fröst (“frost”), Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish frost (“frost”), Latin pruīna (“hoarfrost, frost, rime, snow”). Related to freeze.

English, German, Swedish and Danish surname, all from the noun frost.

Phrases with frost

11 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with frost

4 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about frost

What does frost mean?: Frost means a cover of minute ice crystals on objects that are exposed to the air. Frost is formed by the same process as dew, except that the temperature of the frosted object is below freezing.
What is frost in Hindi?: Frost in Hindi is तुषार (tuṣār), पाला (pālā). See Frost meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is frost?: Frost can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce frost?: Frost is pronounced /fɹɒst/ (UK).
What is the plural of frost?: The plural of frost is frosts.

Words near frost in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: frost (page history and authors); Frost (page history and authors); frost (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); frost (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); frost (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); തുഷാരം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಕುಳಿರ್ (Kannada) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-frost.ogg.

Cite this entry: “frost.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/frost. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.