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• frost
  frost

  noun

  a degree or state of coldness sufficient to cause the freezing of water.
• Frost
  Frost

  noun

  Robert (Lee), 1874–1963, U.S. poet.

frost

¹ American  

[frawst, frost] / frɔst, frɒst /

noun

• frosts
  plural

1. a degree or state of coldness sufficient to cause the freezing of water.

2. Also called hoarfrost. a covering of minute ice needles, formed from the atmosphere at night upon the ground and exposed objects when they have cooled by radiation below the dew point, and when the dew point is below the freezing point.

3. an opaque coating of tiny, white, granular ice particles, formed on the walls or contents of a freezer by the condensation of water vapor; rime.

4. the act or process of freezing.

5. coldness of manner or temperament.

   We noticed a definite frost in his greeting.

   Synonyms:

   reserve, distance, indifference, aloofness

6. Informal. a coolness between persons.

7. Informal. something that meets with lack of enthusiasm, as a theatrical performance or party; failure; flop.

8. a milkshake, frappe, or similar drink.

   a chocolate frost.

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verb (used with object)

• frosts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• frosted,
  past participle,  past
• frosting
  present participle

1. to cover with frost.

2. to give a frostlike surface to (glass, metal, etc.).

3. to ice (a cake, cookies, etc.).

4. to bleach selected strands of (a person's hair) in order to create highlights.

5. to kill or injure by frost.

   a freezing rain that badly frosted the tomato plants.

6. to make angry.

   I was frosted by his critical comment.

verb (used without object)

• frosts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• frosted,
  past participle,  past
• frosting
  present participle

1. to become covered with frost (often followed by up orover ).

   The windshield has frosted over.

2. (of varnish, paint, etc.) to dry with a film resembling frost.

idioms

1. degree of frost, the degree of temperature Fahrenheit below the freezing point.

   10 degrees of frost is equivalent to 22°F.

Frost ² American  

[frawst, frost] / frɔst, frɒst /

noun

1. Robert (Lee), 1874–1963, U.S. poet.

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Frost ¹ British  

/ frɒst /

noun

1. Sir David ( Paradine ). born 1939, British television presenter and executive, noted esp for political interviews

2. Robert ( Lee ). 1874–1963, US poet, noted for his lyrical verse on country life in New England. His books include A Boy's Will (1913), North of Boston (1914), and New Hampshire (1923)

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frost ² British  

/ frɒst /

noun

1. a white deposit of ice particles, esp one formed on objects out of doors at night See also hoarfrost

2. an atmospheric temperature of below freezing point, characterized by the production of this deposit

3. degrees below freezing point: eight degrees of frost indicates a temperature of either –8°C or 24°F

4. informal something given a cold reception; failure

5. informal coolness of manner

6. the act of freezing

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verb

1. to cover or be covered with frost

2. (tr) to give a frostlike appearance to (glass, etc), as by means of a fine-grained surface

3. (tr) to decorate (cakes, etc) with icing or frosting

4. (tr) to kill or damage (crops, etc) with frost

frost Scientific  

/ frôst /

1. A deposit of tiny, white ice crystals on a surface. Frost forms through sublimation, when water vapor in the air condenses at a temperature below freezing. It gets its white color from tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice crystals.

2. See more at dew point

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unfrost
  verb (used with object)
• frostless
  adjective
• frostlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• frosts
  plural

Participles

• frosting
  present
• frosted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• frost
  simple
• frosts
  simple
• have frosted
  perfect
• has frosted
  perfect
• am frosting
  progressive
• are frosting
  progressive
• is frosting
  progressive
• have been frosting
  perfect progressive
• has been frosting
  perfect progressive

Past

• frosted
  simple
• had frosted
  perfect
• was frosting
  progressive
• were frosting
  progressive
• had been frosting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will frost
  simple
• will have frosted
  perfect
• will be frosting
  progressive
• will have been frosting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of frost

First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English frost, forst; cognate with Old Saxon, Old High German, Old Norse frost; akin to freeze

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Explanation

Frost is a thin, icy coating that forms on very cold, damp nights. During a New England winter, you'll have to scrape frost off your car windshield almost every morning. Frost is made of tiny crystals of ice that appear white and tend to form on windows, the ground, trees, and cars. While frost can be lovely on a window, with its snowflake shapes and patterns, it can also be dangerous for farm crops if it forms unexpectedly early or late in the year. Frost comes directly from the Old English, and it has a Proto-Germanic root.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

frost Frost frosts frosted frosting

Wednesday night will bring the first frost of the season to some places, as colder air arrives from the Arctic.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

A metal bed with a refrigeration system that maintained a continuous layer of frost over its surface was placed at its center.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

The fourth season of “Ted Lasso” doesn’t entirely frost those bad vibes with its happiness and hopium.

From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026

"We know what to do for frost or hail, but not wildfires," she said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

Loki steers the ship, but its captain will be Hrym, leader of the frost giants.

From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman

"The storms that aligned already looked different about a day beforehand," said Fischer, who also is a core faculty member of the Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

With John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Nick Frost as Hagrid and Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, the cast is just as formidable and star-studded as the films.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

She's chosen to appear via video link from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, the maximum security prison on the outskirts of Melbourne where she's serving her sentence.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

“The assets provide a nice physical hedge for anybody who is trading natural gas in the LNG and power markets,” said Frost Cochran, Post Oak’s managing director and founding partner.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

She saw the fear on his face, which made him look like Mr. Frost had once looked.

From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman

This is holding daytime temperatures several degrees below the seasonal norm with some late-season frosts at night.

From BBC ● May 13, 2026

This means we are seeing less snow and fewer frosts - in fact we now get around four weeks less ground frost than we did half a century ago.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026

These low temperatures with widespread overnight frosts are expected to continue well into next week.

From BBC ● Jan. 1, 2026

As the growing season progresses, the plant puffs itself into a roughly spherical shape, until the first frosts, when it snaps off its stalk and waits to be blown across the landscape.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025

Streets that glinted with frosts of powdered glass.

From "Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs

I frosted the cake with a Swiss meringue buttercream that required bringing egg whites and sugar together over a pot of simmering water and then whisking it into stiff peaks.

From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026

Until 1 January, when they showed up as usual only to find the mirrors frosted.

From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026

“You couldn’t see the fine details, but you could see everything else,” said Denise Milano Sprung of the frosted bathroom door of the hotel room she shared with her husband at the Calgary Airport Marriott.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 20, 2026

On a Wednesday evening in August, Celeste Perkins walked into El Atacor #1 in Cypress Park holding a towering three-tiered cake, frosted in American buttercream and airbrushed in oversaturated hues of red, green and blue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2025

Apart from a square of frosted glass in the door, the only light's a brown bulb.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

One of the more polite children at our doomed gathering explained that she only liked the pink and blue frosting on supermarket cakes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026

Everything else is just frosting on the cake.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 30, 2026

“Big wasn’t a crush, he was a crash,” Carrie says to Miranda as she peels down the wrapper on a cupcake topped with bright pink buttercream frosting.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2026

Susan Prunty’s bakery in Medford, Ore., sold about 25 Christmas cookie decorating kits through the middle of last December, complete with a dozen freshly baked sugar cookies, buttercream frosting, and sprinkles.

From Barron's ● Dec. 24, 2025

We put the white buttercream frosting into a plastic bag and cut the tip.

From "From the Desk of Zoe Washington" by Janae Marks

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