ˈfrost-ˌbitten, pple. and ppl. a.
Injured by exposure to frost.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 181 Farre poorer then poore frost bitten Snakes. 1594 ― Terrors of Night Ibid. III. 267 [He] like a lanke frost-bitten plant looseth hys vigor. 1665 Pepys Diary 21 Dec., A good chine of beef..being all frost bitten, was most of it unroast. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 93 The Leaves also gathered..somewhat before they are much frost-bitten. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 250 Some fruits become mellower..from having been bruised and frost-bitten. 1865 Dickens Lett. 1 Mar. (1880) II. 226, I have been laid up here with a frost-bitten foot. |
| fig. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. ii. 34 The Captaine, when hee heard me say so, was frost-bitten. 1634 Ford P. Warbeck iv. v, Lady, I return But barren crops of early protestations, Frost-bitten in the spring of fruitless hopes. 1891 C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 60 ‘She's 'ad what I may call a frost-bitten life of it.’ |
b. frost-bitten asphyxy (see
quot.).
| 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) III. 435 Frost-bitten Asphyxy, or that produced by intense cold. |