| frost | 1. To injure by frost; to freeze, as plants. 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. Origin: Frostted; Frosting. 1. The act of freezing; applied chiefly to the congelation of water; congelation of fluids. 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. "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. <physics> Frost bearer, a philosophical instrument illustrating the freezing of water in a vacuum; a cryophous. <botany> Frost grape, 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. 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. Origin: OE. Frost, forst, AS. Forst, frost. Fr. Freosan to freeze; akin to D. Varst, G, OHG, Icel, Dan, & Sw. Frost. 18. See Freeze. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| frost itch | A recurrent eczema appearing with the advent of cold weather. Synonym: frost itch, lumberman's itch, pruritus hiemalis, winter itch. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Frost suture | Intermarginal suture between the eyelids to protect the cornea. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Frost, Albert | <person> U.S. Ophthalmologist, 1889-1945. See: Frost suture. (05 Mar 2000) |
| frost-blite | <botany> A plant of the genus Atriplex; orache. The lamb's-quarters (Chenopodium album). Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| frostberg inverted-three sign | <radiology> Medial retraction of 2nd portion of duodenum, pancreatic carcinoma (less than10% of carcinoma's), acute pancreatitis, postbulbar ulcer disease (12 Dec 1998) |
| frostbird | <zoology> The golden plover. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| frostbite | A cold injury that is accompanied by pallor, numbness and a loss of cold sensation. (27 Sep 1997) |
| frosted | Covered with hoarfrost or anything resembling hoarfrost; ornamented with frosting; also, frost-bitten; as, a frosted cake; frosted glass. "Frosted work is introduced as a foil or contrast to burnished work." (Knight) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| frosted heart | Hyaloserositis involving the pericardium. Synonym: icing heart. (05 Mar 2000) |
| frosted liver | Hyaloserositis of the liver. Synonym: Curschmann's disease, icing liver, sugar-icing liver, zuckergussleber. (05 Mar 2000) |
| frostfish | <zoology> The tomcod; so called because it is abundant on the new England coast in autumn at about the commencement of frost. See Tomcod. The smelt. A name applied in New Zealand to the scabbard fish (Lepidotus) valued as a food fish. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| frostnip | A cold injury that is accompanied by pallor to the affected area. (27 Sep 1997) |
| frostweed | <botany> An American species of rockrose (Helianthemum Canadense), sometimes used in medicine as an astringent or aromatic tonic. 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. Synonym: frostwort. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| frostwort | <botany> Same as Frostweed. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Reed-Frost theory of epidemics | A mathematical theory to explain how epidemics originate and continue. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| uraemic frost | Powdery deposits on the skin, especially the face, of urea and uric acid salts due to excretion of nitrogenous compounds in the sweat; seen in severe uraemia. Synonym: uridrosis crystallina. (05 Mar 2000) |