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It is not only important, but, in a degree necessary, that the people of this country, should have an American Dictionary of the English language; for, although the body of the language is the same as in England, and it is desirable to perpetuate that sameness, yet some differences must exist. Language is the expression of ideas; and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas, they cannot retain an identity of language. |
FROST, n.
FROST, v.t.
The act of freezing;
-- applied chiefly to the congelation of water; congelation of
fluids.
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. Frozen dew; -- called also
hoarfrost or white frost.
He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. Ps. cxlvii. 16. 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 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. The brig and the ice round her are covered by a
strange black -- 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. To injure by frost] to
freeze, as plants.
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. To roughen or sharpen, as the nail heads
or calks of horseshoes, so as to fit them for frosty
weather.
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