defrost

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *de

Proto-Indo-European *-h₁

Proto-Indo-European *déh₁

Proto-Italic *dē

Latin dē

Latin dē-der.

English de-

Proto-Indo-European *prews-

Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Proto-Indo-European *prustós

Proto-Germanic *frustaz

Proto-West Germanic *frost

Old English frost

Middle English frost

English frost

English defrost

From de- + frost.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /diːˈfɹɒst/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /diːˈfɹɔst/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /diːˈfɹɑst/
• Rhymes: -ɒst

Verb

defrost (third-person singular simple present defrosts, present participle defrosting, simple past and past participle defrosted)

1. (transitive) To remove frost from.

   I have just defrosted the fridge.

   • 1985 March 24, Moselle Schaffer, “Around Town: He Looks for Trouble […]”, in Star Magazine (The Indianapolis Star), Indianapolis, Ind., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, column 2:

     After leaving the service, he [Jack Schweibold] flew for Chicago Helicopter Airways and Butler Aviation as a jack-of-all-trades. “I flew the first traffic patrol for the Chicago freeways, defrosted tomato crops by keeping the wind blowing on them so the frost couldn’t form, […]” he says.

2. (transitive) To thaw (something).

   Will you defrost the chops for supper tonight?

3. (informal, intransitive) To recover from something tiresome.

   See you tomorrow evening; I'll have defrosted from my trip by then.

Derived terms

• autodefrost
• defrostable
• defrostee
• defroster

Translations

to remove frost from

• Albanian: shkri, dej
• Catalan: descongelar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 除霜 (zh) (chúshuāng), 解凍 / 解冻 (zh) (jiědòng)

• Czech: odmrazit
• Danish: afrime
• Finnish: poistaa huurre, poistaa jää, sulattaa (fi)
• French: décongeler (fr), dégivrer (fr), déglacer (fr)
• German: entfrosten (de)
• Hungarian: olvaszt (hu), kiolvaszt (hu), felolvaszt (hu)
• Japanese: 解凍する (ja) (かいとうする, kaitō suru)
• Malay: nyahfros
• Polish: odmrozić, rozmrozić (pl)
• Portuguese: descongelar (pt)
• Russian: размора́живать (ru) impf (razmoráživatʹ), разморо́зить (ru) pf (razmorózitʹ)
• Spanish: descongelar (es), deshelar (es)
• Swedish: avfrosta (sv)

to thaw

• Catalan: descongelar (ca), desglaçar (ca), desgelar (ca)
• Czech: rozmrazit
• Finnish: sulattaa (fi)
• French: décongeler (fr)
• German: auftauen (de)
• Hungarian: olvad (hu), felolvad (hu), kiolvad (hu), felenged (hu)
• Ingrian: sulattaa
• Italian: scongelare (it)
• Māori: whakarewa
• Polish: odmrozić, rozmrozić (pl), odmrozić pf, odmrażać impf
• Portuguese: degelar (pt)
• Romanian: dezgheța (ro)
• Russian: размора́живать (ru) impf (razmoráživatʹ), разморо́зить (ru) pf (razmorózitʹ)
• Spanish: descongelar (es)
• Swedish: tina (sv)
• Ukrainian: розморо́жувати impf (rozmoróžuvaty), розморо́зити pf (rozmorózyty)

to recover from something tiresome

• Finnish: palautua (fi)
• Hungarian: felenged (hu), kienged (hu)
• Spanish: recuperarse (es)

Noun

defrost (countable and uncountable, plural defrosts)

1. The removal of frost.
   • 1953, Refrigeration Engineering, volume 61, page 531:

     But only recently has automatic quick defrost appeared on production models of domestic refrigerators.

Anagrams

• frosted