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Glite Dictionary
dry ice

dry ice

19 3.9
A very cold solid made from carbon dioxide used to keep things frozen and make white fog
  • noun
  • /draɪ aɪs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : hielo seco
  • There's all kinds of cold on the floor here, and I see dry ice on the floor.
  • traps baited with dry ice

And for those kind of really cold temperatures, we need lots of this stuff, dry ice.

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Examples

  • The samples were subsequently stored on dry ice and flown to Italy for analysis.

    Academic text (2000)

  • Just pouring bubble solution on the dry ice is also a lot of fun.

    Blog text (10)

  • And get some dry ice, too.

    The Borrower (1991)

  • We need more dry ice.

    Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)

  • When we put dry ice in, water starts a reaction.

  • When I woke up this morning, there was dry ice on the ground.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • I have one and a half tons of dry ice sitting in a meat locker.

    Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011)

  • We've been working with dry ice.

    Envy (2004)

  • Workers weigh samples, label bottles with the origin of the sample, and pack samples in dry ice.

    Academic text (2016)

  • The samples were subsequently stored on dry ice and flown to Italy for analysis.

Synonyms

cryogen
vsdry ice
  • Specialized
9.9

A very cold liquid used to cool things to very low temperatures

is used for refrigeration at a higher, less extreme temperature

How Cold

liquid nitrogen
  • Specialized
18 4.0
dry ice
  • Specialized
19 3.9
freezing mixture
  • Specialized
5.6
ice
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

dry ice singular
dry ices plural

Morphology

dry + ice

The compound 'dry ice' transparently signals a special kind of 'ice' characterized by 'dryness', so a learner will likely infer it is an unusual, non-water ice used for cooling. However the specific identity (solid carbon dioxide that sublimates at −78.5°C) is not predictable from the constituents alone. Because the phrase gives a useful but incomplete clue (and many languages use a literal calque), it is partially but not fully transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Dry ice gets its name because this frozen carbon dioxide looks like ice but stays dry: it does not 'melt' into water and instead 'turns into gas'. That's why people use dry ice to keep things very cold or to make fog.