Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use thaw in a sentence

34 example sentences · verb, noun

Thaw means to gradually cause (something frozen, such as earth, ice, or snow) to melt or soften by raising the temperature. Example: “It’s beginning to thaw.”

Examples of thaw by meaning

verbTo gradually cause (something frozen, such as earth, ice, or snow) to melt or soften by raising the temperature.

  • A further complication is that, in the winter, the ore arrives frozen stiff in the wagons and special arrangements have to be made for thawing it before it can be unloaded.1958 April, M. D. Greville, “Norway’s Most Northerly Railway”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 240

verbOf something frozen, such as earth, ice, or snow: to gradually melt or soften as a result of the temperature being...

  • the ice thaws

verbWith the dummy pronoun it: of the weather: to become sufficiently warm for ice, snow, etc., to melt.

  • It’s beginning to thaw.

verbOf a person or their feelings that are reserved or unfriendly: to become friendly or gentle.

  • Her anger has thawed.
  • The atmosphere at the meeting never really thawed.

More sentences with thaw

  • It's not a good idea to refreeze raw meat once it has been thawed.From the entry refreeze
  • For nuclei isolation, embryos were slowly thawed and dounced using a glass homogenizer (Schubert, Cat.no.2015 June 27, Dhawal Jain et al., “Active promoters give rise to false positive ‘Phantom Peaks’ in ChIP-seq experiments”, in Nucleic Acids…. From the entry dounced
  • Refrigeration is divided into three stages: Overlow temperature, freezing, and thawing.2015, Clifford L. K. Pang, Hyperthermia in Oncology. From the entry overlow
  • Meat may also be thawed in cold water or in a microwave.2002, Wilbur F. Eastman, A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game, page 51. From the entry unthawed
  • Perhaps when she got used to his company she would thaw a little.1993, Lisanne Norman, Turning Point. From the entry cold fish
  • There is also fear that some hawkers may thaw the fish and sell it as fresh.1978 July 13, “Frozen fish: Fear of profiteering at 'wet' markets”, in The Straits Times, Singapore. From the entry wet market
  • In the United States, thawing temperatures make Alaskan mountains the poster child of emerging landslide threats, says Higman.2026 February 27, Paul Salopek, “Hazard Cascade”, in National Geographic. From the entry poster child
  • Costello said the official visits were opportunities to pull Western allies closer, or to try to thaw icier relationships.2020 April 22, Kate Bennett and Christopher Hickey, “How a canceled state dinner highlights a fading White House tradition”, in CNN. From the entry icy
  • This first “thawing station” on her bicycle ride into work.2017, Annie O’Neil, Her Hot Highland Doc, London: Mills & Boon, →ISBN, page 87. From the entry raspberry
  • The cryo-process has been utilized in this case because it has provided good texture, taste, and color in the thawed product.2013, K. D. Timmerhaus, Advances in Cryogenic Engineering, →ISBN. From the entry cryo-process
  • They are formed when a large quantity of ground ice thaws (up to 80% by volume) in permafrost.2007, Mary Chapman, The Geology of Mars: Evidence from Earth-Based Analogs, page 292. From the entry alas
  • Congelifraction occurs in mountains where frosts and thaws alternate.2007, QA International, Understanding the Earth, →ISBN, page 73. From the entry congelifraction
  • Meat may be cooked whether or not it has thawed.2002, Wilbur F. Eastman, A Guide to Canning, Freezing, Curing & Smoking Meat, Fish & Game, page 51. From the entry unthawed
  • Maclinn goes on to endorse the refreezing of fully thawed food, provided it doesn't actually stink, and Dr.1977, John L. Hess, Karen Hess, The Taste of America, page 50. From the entry refreezing
  • Kennedy — policies of firmness on the one hand and an effort to thaw the Cold War on the other.1971, Lyndon Johnson, “"I feel like I have already been here a year"”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN…. From the entry falter
  • "Thaw shay mahogany gas-pipes" is a venerable native witticism.1967 October 30, Myles na gCopaleen, “Language Please”, in The Irish Times, page 10. From the entry mahogany gaspipe
  • Successive falls of snow had thawed, or partially thawed, seeped into the ballast and, as temperatures dropped again, refrozen.1964 April, Warren Smith, “The Midland's accelerated timetable—the first year—II”, in Modern Railways, page 243. From the entry refreeze
  • Thursday, January 21, was a miserable, wet, drizzly day; the thaw started fairly rapidly and transport began to move again.1960 March, “The January blizzard in the North-East of Scotland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 139. From the entry drizzly
  • When the threat of permafrost thaw is high in a location also subject to erosion and flooding, the occurrence of usteq may be high.2019 November, University of Alaska Fairbanks & U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Statewide Threat Assessment, Denali Commission, →OCLC, page…. From the entry usteq
  • We had a blizzard, a thaw, a spell of springy weather, and James baked me a heart-shaped white clam pizza for Valentine's Day.2014, Kitty Burns Florey, Vigil for a Stranger, →ISBN. From the entry springy
  • 'That fellow is a nag.' 'Aye, the worst kind,' agreed Hamish, and then smiled, and at that smile, Miss Gunnery thawed even more.2011, M.C. Beaton -, Death of a Nag, →ISBN. From the entry nag
  • It's such cross-purpose my heart craves, These guests on old Twelfth Night, Their runish, unreadable moil Of prints, the barrowed creche Awaiting thaw.2011, Marly Youmans, The Throne of Psyche. From the entry runish
  • Outside, a wind from the south had picked up, a thawing wind that quickened the patter of snowmelt on the back patio.2001, Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections. From the entry snowmelt
  • The animal had begun to thaw on the snowporch so she was butchering it into sections small enough to fit into the freezer.1985, Saturday Night - Volume 100, page 46. From the entry snowporch
  • The thaw had come rapidly, as usual; many of the small boats, the shikaras, had been caught napping, which was also normal.1981, Salman Rushdie, chapter 1, in Midnight's Children. From the entry shikara
  • I am an optimist at bottom, with a superficial coating of pessimism, which thaws near a piano, a pretty girl, or a glass of Pilsner.1918, James Gibbons Huneker, “Jim the Penman”, in Steeplejack, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, part I (In Old…. From the entry pilsner
  • After a spell of warm weather and an early thaw, monsieur and he had made an early trip up to the lake in the last days of February.2010, Tony Lewis, If Only I Could Talk, Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 114. From the entry manniversary
  • Authorities in Huma county arranged for the ice detonation in a river on the border with Russia, as temperature rises have caused the river to thaw at a faster rate.2022 March 31, Harvey Kong, “Chinese workers take explosive approach to clear ice jams”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry Huma
  • If a freeze-up happens, the inaccessible section is likely to freeze along with the section in the hotbox itself, and the tape gives you an emergency method of thawing it.1978, Designing & Building Your Own House Your Own Way, page 62. From the entry hotbox

Meaning of thaw

  1. verb To gradually cause (something frozen, such as earth, ice, or snow) to melt or soften by raising the temperature.
  2. verb To gradually cause (someone or something that is very cold) to warm up.
  3. verb To cause (something inactive) to become active; also, to cause (something unfeeling) to have feelings.

Full definition of thaw

Questions about thaw in a sentence

How do you use thaw in a sentence?
Thaw is used as a verb and noun. For example: “It’s beginning to thaw.”
What is a short sentence with thaw?
“the ice thaws”
What does thaw mean?
Thaw means to gradually cause (something frozen, such as earth, ice, or snow) to melt or soften by raising the temperature.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thaw (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use thaw in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/thaw. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.