glacial
2
6.1
- adjective
- /ˈɡleɪʃəl/
:
gélido
- These eggs are positively glacial.
- glacial pace
- glacial blue
- glacial cold
The lake was freezing like glacial water freezing.
- The lake was freezing like glacial water freezing.
- And when a few drop to the frames beneath honey, and after falling down to cry, everything's glacial shine.
Examples
-
Oh, it's glacial in here.
-
And it's just this majestic, beautiful, glacial world.
-
Beyond, only the cold pressure lights could burn, glacial blue.
Fiction book (1998) -
It was the cold that woke her, a glacial cold like no other in her experience.
Fiction book (1995) -
On the utterly glacial mornings of the winter.
Fiction book (2002) -
Seriously, I am working on so many fronts that my glacial progress on Time Diving is hard to measure.
Blog text (16) -
The ground, stirred by the glacial breeze.
Fiction book (1990) -
This water's glacial!
-
The temperature was 40 below, and a glacial wind swept off the nearby mountains.
-
Tears froze on her cheeks, her heart beat at a slow, glacial pace, as the cold sapped her strength and her life.
Synonyms
121
4.2
Relating to the North or South Pole and the very cold regions there
89
1.0
Very cold with surfaces covered in ice
34
1.0
Very cold, like frozen water
30
4.1
Very cold, like ice or freezing air
15
1.3
Very cold, at or below freezing
14
4.5
Very cold, like the weather near the North Pole
11
1.0
Cold, often with a thin layer of ice on the ground
1
1.0
Covered with ice because of very cold weather
1
9.9
Very cold, like ice or frost
1
6.8
Very cold, often with a strong wind
So cold that water turns to ice
Like ice in look, feel, or tone
Antonyms
Compounds
How Cold
Surface Forms
Morphology
glacial = glacier (semi-transparent) = glaci + al
The morphological structure is clear, but the meaning has broadened from 'relating to glaciers/ice' to the more general sense 'extremely cold'.
Etymology
Glacial comes from the Latin glacies, 'ice', and is related to glacier. So when the air or wind is described as 'glacial', it means it is extremely cold, like a glacier.