2. The state or temperature of the air which occasions
congelation, or the freezing of water; severe cold or
freezing weather.
The third bay comes a frost, a killing frost.
--Shak.
3. Frozen dew; -- called also {hoarfrost} or {white frost}.
He scattereth the frost like ashes. --Ps. cxlvii.
16.
4. Coldness or insensibility; severity or rigidity of
character. [R.]
It was of those moments of intense feeling when the
frost of the Scottish people melts like a snow
wreath. --Sir W.
Scott.
{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
cryophous.
{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 keen him from slipping.
{Frost smoke}, an appearance resembling smoke, caused by
congelation of vapor in the atmosphere in time of severe
cold.
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.
2. To cover with hoarfrost; to produce a surface resembling
frost upon, as upon cake, metals, or glass.
While with a hoary light she frosts the ground.
--Wordsworth.
3. To roughen or sharpen, as the nail heads or calks of
horseshoes, so as to fit them for frosty weather.