black frost

American  

noun

1. intense cold without hoarfrost, causing vegetation to turn black.

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black frost British  

noun

1. a frost without snow or rime that is severe enough to blacken vegetation

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Etymology

Origin of black frost

First recorded in 1700–10

Example Sentences

Outside, the land lay sickening under black frost.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thereafter, the king loses a battle, a mind and an identity when he is reduced to a pitiable creature, "wind-scourged, stripped/ like a winter tree/ clad in black frost/ and frozen snow."

From Time Magazine Archive

What happens to the corn plants and the luxuriant branching vines when the grain is harvested, the grapes gathered, and the black frost sets in, killing the fresh green life of the fields?

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton

Finally he was so close he felt the chill of Encanis’ passing and could spy places where he had set his hands and feet, for they were marked with a cold, black frost.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

I opened the glass-door in the breakfast-room: the shrubbery was quite still: the black frost reigned, unbroken by sun or breeze, through the grounds.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë