| English Dictionary |
FROSTY (frostier, frostiest)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, frostiest Dictionary entry overview: What does frosty mean?
• FROSTY (adjective)
The adjective FROSTY has 3 senses:
1. devoid of warmth and cordiality; expressive of unfriendliness or disdain
2. covered with frost
3. pleasantly cold and invigorating
Familiarity information: FROSTY used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: frostiest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Devoid of warmth and cordiality; expressive of unfriendliness or disdain
Synonyms:
frigid; frosty; frozen; glacial; icy; wintry
Context example:
wintry smile
Similar:
cold (extended meanings; especially of psychological coldness; without human warmth or emotion)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Covered with frost
Synonyms:
Context example:
hedgerows were rimed and stiff with frost
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:
Pleasantly cold and invigorating
Synonyms:
crisp; frosty; nipping; nippy; snappy
Context example:
snappy weather
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)
Context examples
There was not the faintest whisper of air—nothing moved, not a leaf quivered, the visible breaths of the dogs rising slowly and lingering in the frosty air.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
It had been a frosty morning, to be sure, a sharp frost, which hardly one woman in a thousand could stand the test of.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
At first she would not open to me, but in her heart I know that now she loves me, and she could not leave me in the frosty night.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
At other times he worked in the garden, but as there was little to do in the frosty season, he read to the old man and Agatha.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Bare-headed as we were, we ran out at once in the gathering evening and the frosty fog.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Steerforth was pretty sure to be there expecting me, and we went on together through the frosty air and gathering fog towards the twinkling lights of the town.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
On a frosty winter afternoon, I rode in sight of Thornfield Hall.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The dog-musher wore a moustache, but the other, a taller and younger man, was smooth- shaven, his skin rosy from the pounding of his blood and the running in the frosty air.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
From dawn to sundown the long train wound through the pass, their breath reeking up upon the frosty air like the steam from a cauldron.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Now for Mr. Breckinridge,” he continued, buttoning up his coat as we came out into the frosty air.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"One could not cross a bridge constructed by oneself." (Bhutanese proverb)
"People are enemies of that which they don't know." (Arabic proverb)
"Just toss it in my hat and I'll sort it to-morrow." (Dutch proverb)