v. i. 1. To become free of frost or ice; as, it took four hours for the refrigerator to defrost.
Syn. -- deice. [ PJC ]

2. To thaw; -- used especially of items removed from a freezer, such as frozen foods. [ PJC ]

v. t. To remove the frost or ice from; as, to defrost the car window; to defrost a refrigerator.
Syn. -- deice. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A device that removes ice or frost (as from a windshield or a refrigerator or the wings of an airplane).
Syn. -- deicer. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ OE. frost, forst, AS. forst, frost. fr. freósan to freeze; akin to D. varst, G., OHG., Icel., Dan., & Sw. frost. √18. See Freeze, v. i. ] 1. The act of freezing; -- applied chiefly to the congelation of water; congelation of fluids. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The state or temperature of the air which occasions congelation, or the freezing of water; severe cold or freezing weather. [ 1913 Webster ]

The third bay comes a frost, a killing frost. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Frozen dew; -- called also hoarfrost or white frost. [ 1913 Webster ]

He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. Ps. cxlvii. 16. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of character. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

It was of those moments of intense feeling when the frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow wreath. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

Black frost, cold so intense as to freeze vegetation and cause it to turn black, without the formation of hoarfrost. --
Frost bearer (Physics), a philosophical instrument illustrating the freezing of water in a vacuum; a cryophorus. --
Frost grape (Bot.), an American grape, with very small, acid berries. --
Frost lamp, a lamp placed below the oil tube of an Argand lamp to keep the oil limpid on cold nights; -- used especially in lighthouses. Knight. --
Frost nail, a nail with a sharp head driven into a horse's shoe to keep him from slipping. --
Frost smoke, an appearance resembling smoke, caused by congelation of vapor in the atmosphere in time of severe cold. [ 1913 Webster ] The brig and the ice round her are covered by a strange black
obscurity: it is the frost smoke of arctic winters. Kane. --
Frost valve, a valve to drain the portion of a pipe, hydrant, pump, etc., where water would be liable to freeze. --
Jack Frost, a popular personification of frost. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Frosted; p. pr. & vb. n. Frosting. ] 1. To injure by frost; to freeze, as plants. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cover with hoarfrost; to produce a surface resembling frost upon, as upon cake, metals, or glass; as, glass may be frosted by exposure to hydrofluoric acid. [ 1913 Webster ]

While with a hoary light she frosts the ground. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To roughen or sharpen, as the nail heads or calks of horseshoes, so as to fit them for frosty weather. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The golden plover. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The freezing, or effect of a freezing, of some part of the body, as the ears, fingers, toes, or nose. Severe frostbite can lead to the loss of fingers or toes. Kane.

v. t. To expose to the effect of frost, or a frosty air; to blight or nip with frost. [ 1913 Webster ]

My wife up and with Mrs. Pen to walk in the fields to frostbite themselves. Pepys. [ 1913 Webster ]

p. a. Nipped, withered, or injured, by frost or freezing. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) (a) A plant of the genus Atriplex; orache. Gray. (b) The lamb's-quarters (Chenopodium album). Dr. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A white arc or circle in the sky attending frosty weather and formed by reflection of sunlight from ice crystals floating in the air; the parhelic circle whose center is at the zenith. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. 1. Covered with hoarfrost or anything resembling hoarfrost; ornamented with frosting; also, frost-bitten; as, a frosted cake; frosted donuts. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Provided with a surface finish which is matte or with a very fine grain, reminiscent of the surface texture of frost; as, frosted glass. Opposed to polished or burnished. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

Frosted work is introduced as a foil or contrast to burnished work. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) (a) The tomcod; -- so called because it is abundant on the New England coast in autumn at about the commencement of frost. See Tomcod. (b) The smelt. [ Local, U. S. ] (c) A name applied in New Zealand to the scabbard fish (Lepidotus) valued as a food fish. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. not accumulating frost; -- used especially of refrigerators with an automatic defrost cycle such that the freezer compartment remains free of ice without need for a manual defrosting. [ PJC ]

prop. a. of or pertaining to Robert Frost (definition 4). [ WordNet 1.5 ]

adv. In a frosty manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. State or quality of being frosty. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A composition of sugar and beaten egg, used to cover or ornament cake, pudding, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A lusterless finish of metal or glass; the process of producing such a finish. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. the lightened color on part of an object, as of hair, produced by treatment with bleach or other chemicals; as only part of the object is thus treated, the final color of the object is two-toned; also, the process of producing such a two-toned effect. [ PJC ]

a. 1. Free from frost; as, a frostless winter. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. same as frost-free. [ PJC ]

. (Meteor.) A signal consisting of a white flag with a black center, used by the United States Weather Bureau to indicate that a local frost is expected. It is used only in Florida and along the coasts of the Pacific and the Gulf Mexico. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Bot.) An American species of rockrose (Helianthemum Canadense), sometimes used in medicine as an astringent or aromatic tonic. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ It has large yellow flowers which are often sterile, and later it has abundant but inconspicuous flowers which bear seed. It is so called because, late in autumn, crystals of ice shoot from the cracked bark at the root; -- called also frostwort. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The figurework, often fantastic and delicate, which moisture sometimes forms in freezing, as upon a window pane or a flagstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) Same as Frostweed. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. AS. fyrstig. ] 1. Attended with, or producing, frost; having power to congeal water; cold; freezing; as, a frosty night. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Covered with frost; as, the grass is frosty. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Chill in affection; without warmth of affection or courage. Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Appearing as if covered with hoarfrost; white; gray-haired; as, a frosty head. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The white particles formed by the congelation of dew; white frost. [ Written also horefrost. See Hoar, a. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. Ps. cxlvii. 16. [ 1913 Webster ]