a deposit of needle-like ice crystals formed on the ground by direct condensation at temperatures below freezing point
Also called: white frost
white frost in American English
noun
a heavy coating of frost
Word origin
[1350–1400; ME]This word is first recorded in the period 1350–1400. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: flash, kick, range, screen, tune
Examples of 'white frost' in a sentence
white frost
This is a thick mass of white frost that can coat everything like a layer of icing sugar.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
There is nothing more wintry than peering out into the garden to spot each shiny green leaf ringed with white frost.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
I woke to a white frost that rimed the grass of the watermeadows, fog veiling the skeletal crack willows and alders by the stream.
Times, Sunday Times (2018)
Haareis is 'fine strands of snow' growing from the underside of wood; it is similar to rime, a 'build-up of feathery, white frost'.