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FROSTY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: frostier , frostiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Pleasantly cold and invigorating
Example:
snappy weather
Synonyms:
crisp; frosty; nipping; nippy; snappy
Classified under:
Similar:
cold (having a low or inadequate temperature or feeling a sensation of coldness or having been made cold by e.g. ice or refrigeration)
Derivation:
frost (weather cold enough to cause freezing)
frostiness (coldness as evidenced by frost)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Covered with frost
Example:
hedgerows were rimed and stiff with frost
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
cold (having a low or inadequate temperature or feeling a sensation of coldness or having been made cold by e.g. ice or refrigeration)
Derivation:
frost (the formation of frost or ice on a surface)
frost (ice crystals forming a white deposit (especially on objects outside))
frostiness (coldness as evidenced by frost)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Devoid of warmth and cordiality; expressive of unfriendliness or disdain
Example:
wintry smile
Synonyms:
frigid; frosty; frozen; glacial; icy; wintry
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
cold (extended meanings; especially of psychological coldness; without human warmth or emotion)
Context examples:
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered what appears to be the coldest brown dwarf known — a dim, star-like body that surprisingly is as frosty as Earth's North Pole.
(A cold, close neighbor of the Sun, NASA)
In her anxiety to keep her voice quite calm, Jo made it rather cool, and the frosty little monosyllable at the end seemed to chill the Professor, for his smile vanished, as he said gravely...
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
We walked, that winter evening, in the fields together; and the blessed calm within us seemed to be partaken by the frosty air.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
They were stiff with their long and jolting drive from Whitcross, and chilled with the frosty night air; but their pleasant countenances expanded to the cheerful firelight.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It was on a bitterly cold and frosty morning, towards the end of the winter of ’97, that I was awakened by a tugging at my shoulder.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And even as they eased him down upon the blankets his snores were rising on the frosty air.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
When we were about half-way through, I suddenly put my hand upon her arm, for I had heard in the silent frosty air a sound that brought my heart into my mouth—the tap-tapping of the blind man's stick upon the frozen road.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
In fact, there was a story current among us (I have no idea, and never had, on what authority, but I have believed it for so many years that I feel quite certain it is true), that on a frosty day, one winter-time, he actually did bestow his gaiters on a beggar-woman, who occasioned some scandal in the neighbourhood by exhibiting a fine infant from door to door, wrapped in those garments, which were universally recognized, being as well known in the vicinity as the Cathedral.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I can remember Miss Temple walking lightly and rapidly along our drooping line, her plaid cloak, which the frosty wind fluttered, gathered close about her, and encouraging us, by precept and example, to keep up our spirits, and march forward, as she said, like stalwart soldiers.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
We had been out for one of our evening rambles, Holmes and I, and had returned about six o’clock on a cold, frosty winter’s evening.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
