frosty
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfɹɒsti/
ipa: /ˈfɹɔsti/
ipa: /ˈfɹɑs-/
rhymes: -ɒsti
Forms: form: frostier
form: frostiest
Etymology: From Middle English frosty, forsty, from Old English forstiġ, fyrstiġ (“frosty”), from Proto-West Germanic *frostag, *frustīg, By surface analysis, frost + -y.
Cognates
Cognate with West Frisian froastich (“frosty”), Dutch vorstig (“frosty”), German Low German fröstig (“frosty”), German frostig (“frosty”), Swedish frostig (“frosty”). Compare also Saterland Frisian froasterch (“frosty”), German Low German frösterg (“frosty”).
Senses: examples: text: The air was frosty; I could see my breath and walked quickly with my hands in my pockets.
text: I'd like a frosty milkshake.
text: It was late at night and frosty[.]
ref: 1973, Patsy Adam Smith, The Barcoo Salute, Adelaide: Rigby, page 2:
text: During the frostiest days of the Cold War, avoiding the Soviet Bloc meant flying north around Greenland to Alaska, refueling in Anchorage, and then around the Bering Straits to reach Japan.
ref: 2022 February 26, John Walton, “How the Ukraine conflict could redraw the world air map”, in CNN, archived from the original on 26 Feb 2022:
synonyms: word: frigid
word: wintry
word: algid
word: Arctic
word: Baltic
word: benumbed
word: bitter
word: bleak
word: bone-chilling
word: boreal
word: brass monkeys
word: brisk
word: brumal
word: chill
word: chilled
word: chilly
word: clay-cold
word: cold
word: cold as a mackerel
word: cold as a well-digger's arse
word: cold as a witch's kiss
word: cold as a witch's teat
word: cold as a witch's tit
word: cold as charity
word: cold as ice
word: cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
word: cool
word: crisp
word: drafty
word: freezing
word: frigid
word: frosty
word: frore
word: frozen
word: gelid
word: glacial
word: hiemal
word: icy
word: inclement
word: nesh
word: nippy
word: parky
word: polar
word: shivering
word: sleety
word: snowy
word: taters
word: wintry
glosses: Cold, chilly; icy.
examples: text: The frosty pumpkin is the sign of the end of the growing season, soon the greenery will wither and harvest end for the year.
text: The frosty beverage gave him a brain freeze.
text: In scented, frilly boutiques that she seemed to find by instinct, they exchanged her battered wardrobe for fur capes and Anna Karenina riding boots that slithered on the frosty cobble, and Pym's dismal school habit for a leather jacket and trousers without buttons for his braces.
ref: 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
synonyms: frostbound
frosted
rimed
glosses: Having frost on it or in it.
examples: text: After the divorce, she was civil but frosty to her ex.
text: Chilly from the start, she grows ever frostier as the book proceeds, partly because Mr. Martin has difficulty translating her sexual abandon to anything beyond “sexual due process.”
ref: 2010 November 28, Janet Maslin, “A New York Tale of Art, Money and Ambition”, in The New York Times:
synonyms: word: cool
word: harsh
word: severe
word: aloof
word: cool
word: distant
word: frosty
word: hankty
word: hard-to-get
word: offish
word: quiet
word: remote
word: reserved
word: standoffish
word: strange
word: thorny
word: touch-me-not-ish
word: unapproachable
word: unbending
word: undemonstrative
word: unimpressionable
word: uninvolved
word: callous
word: cold
word: cold-eyed
word: dour
word: flint-hearted
word: forbidding
word: frosty
word: grim
word: hard
word: hard-boiled
word: hardened
word: hardhearted
word: heartless
word: harsh
word: humorless
word: icy
word: iron-hearted
word: insensitive
word: rigorous
word: rockhearted
word: severe
word: stern
word: stonehearted
word: stony
word: stonyhearted
word: strict
word: tough
word: unsympathetic
word: unmoved
glosses: Having an aloof or inhospitable manner.
Derived terms: frostily
frostiness
frosty moon
frosty one
stay frosty
that'll be the frosty Friday
unfrosty