freezing
/ˈfriːzɪŋ
/adjective
1Below 0°C: strong winds and freezing temperatures...
- Although it was unseasonably warm this day, we expected the temperature to dip below the freezing level as the night wore on.
- I got off the airplane on a freezing day.
- When her bare leg met the freezing air below, however, she let out a strangled yelp and jumped away.
Synonyms
bitterly cold, cold, chill, chilling, frosty, frozen, glacial, wintry, sub-zero;
raw, biting, piercing, penetrating, cutting, stinging, numbing;
arctic, polar, Siberian
rare gelid, brumal, rimy, algid, circumpolar
1.1(Used hyperbolically) very cold: he was freezing and miserable [as submodifier]: it was freezing cold outside...
- Come next January, though, I have a feeling that there will be many annoyed people around the country, out on the streets outside pubs in the freezing cold!
- We ended up waiting outside in the freezing cold for about 45 minutes, maybe more, before we got in.
- It's not like I have to sleep outside in the freezing cold.
Synonyms
frozen, extremely cold, painfully cold, numb with cold, very chilly, chilled through, chilled to the bone/marrow, frozen to the core, frozen stiff, shivery, shivering;
frostbitten
informal frozen to death
1.2(Of fog or rain) consisting of droplets which freeze rapidly on contact with a surface to form ice crystals.Beginning to shiver himself in the freezing rain, he said, ‘Yeah, I guess it is cold.’...
- Inclement weather, which included snow, sleet, and freezing rain, and poor track conditions were cited as the reasons for cancellation.
- Winter storms normally bring ordinary rain, freezing rain and sleet as well as snow.
noun
The freezing point of water (0°C): the temperature was well above freezing...
- But they stressed England would not be hit as hard as north of the border, though temperatures would drop below freezing tonight.
- A city office building that had been used as an emergency shelter when temperatures fell to below freezing was closed last year.
- Snow is on the ground in the area and temperatures well below freezing are expected tonight.