THAWING

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does thawing mean? 

• THAWING (noun)
  The noun THAWING has 2 senses:

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

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

  Familiarity information: THAWING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THAWING (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 ("thawing" 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 ("thawing" 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)

 Context examples 

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)

All things were thawing, bending, snapping.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

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)

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)

Between mouthfuls he talked trail and dogs with the man, who, with head over the stove, was thawing the ice from his mustache.

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

Researchers note that the new carbon storage is not forever, since future warming will likely start re-thawing some of the permafrost and release some of the carbon in it via microbial decomposition.

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

The study found that warmer, more southerly permafrost regions will not become a carbon source until the end of the 22nd century, even though they are thawing now.

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

They were coated solidly with ice, and the two men kept them on the run around the fire, sweating and thawing, so close that they were singed by the flames.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

These lakes are being fertilized by thawing yedoma permafrost.

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

The study calculated that as thawing continues, total carbon emissions from this region over the next 300 years or so will be 10 times as much as all human-produced fossil fuel emissions in the single year 2016.

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