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ice water

American  

noun

  1. water chilled with or as if with ice.

  2. melted ice.


ice water British  

noun

  1. water formed from ice

  2. Also called: iced water.  drinking water cooled by refrigeration or the addition of ice

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of ice water

First recorded in 1715–25

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

With his team, he workshopped lines they hoped would be like a bucket of ice water, including a slogan Carney had used before: “Nostalgia is not a strategy.”

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 8, 2026

Soon after, former Utah basketball player and sports content creator Hunter Mecum posted a video on Instagram in which he dumped a large bowl of ice water on himself in Johnson’s honor.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 2, 2026

Videos upon videos of Americans ditching ice water for hot water in the morning, boiling apples into tea, and saying that we have met them “at a very Chinese time” in their lives.

From Slate Mar. 13, 2026

The hidden image became clear only after the film was placed in ice water or gradually heated.

From Science Daily Feb. 6, 2026

In all the years I’d known him, we’d never had a conversation that hadn’t been a sham to lure him through a door with a bucket of ice water balanced on top.

From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman

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