frosty
adjUK /ˈfɹɒsti/ · US /ˈfɹɔsti/
Etymology From Middle English frosty, forsty, from Old English forstiġ, fyrstiġ (“frosty”), from Proto-West Germanic *frostag, *frustīg, By surface analysis, frost + -y. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian froastich (“frosty”), Dutch vorstig (“frosty”), German Low German fröstig (“frosty”), German frostig (“frosty”), Swedish frostig (“frosty”). Compare also Saterland Frisian froasterch (“frosty”), German Low German frösterg (“frosty”).
1
Cold, chilly; icy.
- The air was frosty; I could see my breath and walked quickly with my hands in my pockets.
- I'd like a frosty milkshake.
2 more examples
- It was late at night and frosty[.]1973, Patsy Adam Smith, The Barcoo Salute, Adelaide: Rigby, page 2:
- During the frostiest days of the Cold War, avoiding the Soviet Bloc meant flying north around Greenland to Alaska, refueling in Anchorage, and then around the Bering Straits to reach Japan.2022 February 26, John Walton, “How the Ukraine conflict could redraw the world air map”, in CNN, archived from the original on 26 Feb 2022:
2
Having frost on it or in it.
- The frosty pumpkin is the sign of the end of the growing season, soon the greenery will wither and harvest end for the year.
- The frosty beverage gave him a brain freeze.
1 more example
- In scented, frilly boutiques that she seemed to find by instinct, they exchanged her battered wardrobe for fur capes and Anna Karenina riding boots that slithered on the frosty cobble, and Pym's dismal school habit for a leather jacket and trousers without buttons for his braces.1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
3
Figuratively Having an aloof or inhospitable manner.
- After the divorce, she was civil but frosty to her ex.
- Chilly from the start, she grows ever frostier as the book proceeds, partly because Mr. Martin has difficulty translating her sexual abandon to anything beyond “sexual due process.”2010 November 28, Janet Maslin, “A New York Tale of Art, Money and Ambition”, in The New York Times:
2 more examples
- Network Rail had previously been reported to be frosty about reopening the South Sub [South Suburban Railway] to passenger traffic - but things appear to have changed.2025 November 26, Conrad Landin, “Edinburgh eyes on tram-trains?”, in RAIL, number 1049, pages 34-35:
- Keir Starmer has met Andy Burnham for the first time since the Makerfield byelection in what sources said was a “frosty” meeting to thrash out a transition of power.2026 June 23, Pippa Crerar, “Burnham and Starmer hold ‘frosty’ meeting to thrash out transition of power”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- Derived terms
- frostily, frostiness, frosty moon, frosty one, stay frosty, that'll be the frosty Friday, unfrosty