THAW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does thaw mean? 

• THAW (noun)
  The noun THAW has 3 senses:

1. the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid

2. warm weather following a freeze; snow and ice melt

3. a relaxation or slackening of tensions or reserve; becoming less hostile

  Familiarity information: THAW used as a noun is uncommon.

• THAW (verb)
  The verb THAW has 1 sense:

1. become or cause to become soft or liquid

  Familiarity information: THAW used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THAW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

melt; melting; thaw; thawing

Context example:

the thawing of a frozen turkey takes several hours

Hypernyms ("thaw" is a kind of...):

heating; warming (the process of becoming warmer; a rising temperature)

phase change; phase transition; physical change; state change (a change from one state (solid or liquid or gas) to another without a change in chemical composition)

Derivation:

thaw (become or cause to become soft or liquid)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Warm weather following a freeze; snow and ice melt

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

thaw; thawing; warming

Context example:

they welcomed the spring thaw

Hypernyms ("thaw" is a kind of...):

atmospheric condition; conditions; weather; weather condition (the atmospheric conditions that comprise the state of the atmosphere in terms of temperature and wind and clouds and precipitation)

Derivation:

thaw (become or cause to become soft or liquid)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A relaxation or slackening of tensions or reserve; becoming less hostile

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

the thaw between the United States and Russia has led to increased cooperation in world affairs

Hypernyms ("thaw" is a kind of...):

loosening; relaxation; slackening (an occurrence of control or strength weakening)

• THAW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they thaw    ... he / she / it thaws   
Past simple: thawed   
Past participle: thawed   
-ing form: thawing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become or cause to become soft or liquid

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

dethaw; dissolve; melt; thaw; unfreeze; unthaw

Context example:

dethaw the meat

Hypernyms (to "thaw" is one way to...):

flux; liquefy; liquify (become liquid or fluid when heated)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "thaw"):

deliquesce (melt or become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air)

de-ice; defrost; deice (make or become free of frost or ice)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The chefs thaw the vegetables

Derivation:

thaw (warm weather following a freeze; snow and ice melt)

thaw; thawing (the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid)

 Context examples 

All things were thawing, bending, snapping.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

That is because other changing Arctic processes will counter the effect of thawing soil in these regions.

(Far Northern Permafrost May Unleash Carbon Within Decades, NASA)

The embryos are frozen and can later be thawed and placed in a woman’s uterus.

(Embryo cryopreservation, NCI Dictionary)

The moisture from his breath had collected on his beard and frozen into a great mass of ice, and this he proceeded to thaw out.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The eggs are thawed and fertilized in the laboratory to make embryos that can be placed in a woman’s uterus.

(Egg cryopreservation, NCI Dictionary)

But climate change has brought warmer and longer summers throughout the Arctic, and permafrost soils are thawing more and more.

(Alaska Shows No Signs of Rising Arctic Methane, NASA)

New research counters a widely-held scientific view that thawing permafrost uniformly accelerates atmospheric warming, indicating instead that certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they emit into the atmosphere.

(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)

It was a full-grown mosquito, one that had lain frozen in a dry log all winter and that had now been thawed out by the sun.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The blaze there has thawed all the snow from your cloak; by the same token, it has streamed on to my floor, and made it like a trampled street.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was not until we had consumed some hot tea at the station and taken our places in the Kentish train that we were sufficiently thawed, he to speak and I to listen.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)