refrigerate
Americanverb (used with object)
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refrigerates,
present (3rd person singular)
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refrigerated,
past participle, past
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refrigerating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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refrigerationnoun
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nonrefrigeratedadjective
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refrigerativeadjective
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refrigeratoryadjective
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unrefrigeratedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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refrigeratesimple
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refrigeratessimple
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have refrigeratedperfect
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has refrigeratedperfect
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am refrigeratingprogressive
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are refrigeratingprogressive
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is refrigeratingprogressive
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have been refrigeratingperfect progressive
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has been refrigeratingperfect progressive
Past
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refrigeratedsimple
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had refrigeratedperfect
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was refrigeratingprogressive
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were refrigeratingprogressive
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had been refrigeratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of refrigerate
1525–35; < Latin refrīgerātus, past participle of refrīgerāre to make cool, equivalent to re- re- + frīgerāre to make cool, derivative of frīgus cold; see -ate 1
Explanation
To refrigerate something is to preserve it by keeping it cool. A gallon of milk might last a week if you refrigerate it, but it will be spoiled after a day or so if you leave it on the kitchen counter. At home, you refrigerate things all the time by keeping them in your refrigerator. If there's no refrigerator available, people can refrigerate things by storing them in coolers or outside in the cold months of the year. A recipe for cookies might instruct you to refrigerate them for an hour before baking them — all you have to do is put the baking sheet in the fridge. Refrigerate shares a Latin root with frigid.
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:
Businesses have shuttered, hospitals have had to turn to generators that have occasionally faltered, and residents have been scrambling to charge phones and refrigerate food.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
There have also been reports of people unable to refrigerate medication and a wheelchair user crawling down their stairs in the absence of working lifts.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
“Because lithium-ion needs to actively cool, you’re basically paying to refrigerate your batteries or using energy to refrigerate your batteries, and we don’t need any of that stuff,” said Mossburg.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
“LNG plants are very electricity-intensive because of the need to refrigerate and freeze the gas,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 2026
Think of the electricity bill to refrigerate a 200,000-square-foot plant.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
He mentioned a machine that refrigerates and pumps ayran, a salty yogurt drink popular across Asia and Eastern Europe, which the group installed at an exhibition in Hanover, Germany.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022
She refrigerates half-consumed bottles, determined never to waste a drop.
From Washington Post ● May 18, 2022
To quell this thermodynamic threat, data centers overwhelmingly rely on air conditioning, a mechanical process that refrigerates the gaseous medium of air, so that it can displace or lift perilous heat away from computers.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 1, 2022
Pilapaña manages to concentrate guinea pig flavor after cooking and preparing a pate from the animal’s flesh, adds milk or cream and refrigerates the concoction until it has the rough consistency of ice cream.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 4, 2019
Pluralistic moralism simply makes their teeth chatter, it refrigerates the very heart within their breast.
From Pragmatism by William James
Perishable goods such as seafood and dairy are particularly vulnerable because refrigerated transport is more fuel-intensive, said David Ortega, an economist at Michigan State University.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
That strength ends up spilling over, to some degree, to other truck modalities, such as refrigerated trucks and dry-van trucking, he said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
I’m standing in the produce aisle of my neighborhood supermarket, between the fresh vegetables receiving their bi-hourly overhead mist and a long refrigerated wall of salad kits.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
Currently, most vaccines need to be refrigerated or frozen - but around half are wasted each year, mainly because they become unusable after getting too hot or too cold.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
How much fossil fuel was burned to keep it refrigerated and fly it to the U.S.?
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
Higher fuel prices have increased the cost of transporting and refrigerating perishable foods.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026
There’s something that just feels right about refrigerating eggs.
From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2025
Conversely, the "Mason jar" method involves snipping the bottoms of your herb stems, storing the herbs upright in a jar with about an inch of fresh, cool water, and then sealing completely before refrigerating.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2023
Also, there is now a reference to refrigerating the sauce.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2022
The refrigerating engineer was worried, too, when he found that Mr. Popper had practically no money.
From "Mr. Popper's Penguins" by Florence Atwater and Richard Atwater
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
