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Glite Dictionary
to ice over

to ice over

2 3.4
Get covered in ice, for example a pond or window
  • phrasal verb
  • /aɪs ˈoʊvər/
: cubrirse de hielo
  • After a freezing rain, the roads iced over, causing numerous accidents in the morning.
  • ice over the lake
  • ice over the road
  • starts to ice over

Articles in Bloomberg Apartment Markets have turned to ice over the past few months, says one Bloomberg article from today.

Examples

  • During the night, the lake iced over, making it dangerous to walk on the surface.

  • It is 28 degrees with a heavy dew this morning, and the visor on his helmet had iced over, so he flipped it up, and then his glasses iced over.

    Blog text (17)

  • Like, it's all iced over.

    Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019)

  • It's iced over there, we can walk across, come on.

    Dead of Winter (2014)

  • This time around, the bay was iced over, so no whales.

    Blog text (10)

  • A cold snap comes in October, freezing a skin of ice over the lake; it's got to be a shallow one, almost a marsh.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Here at the equator, lakes and streams ice over in deep winter.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The road was iced over, and it was snowing.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The surface of the hole in the pond had iced over during the night, and she chipped at it using the stone left there by the boy.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The cold snap caused the river to ice over, trapping some boats in the harbor.

Synonyms

to freeze
vsto ice over
215 1.0

Become solid because of cold, like water turning to ice

describes surface covering rather than a full material state change
to ice up
vsto ice over
3 4.3

To form a layer of ice on something, making it slippery

describes covering generally without stressing slipperiness or unusability
to frost
vsto ice over
3 2.2

To cover or become covered with a thin layer of ice in very cold weather

means simple surface covering without implying harm or damage
to frost over
vsto ice over
1 3.2

To get a thin layer of ice on windows or car mirrors

refers to a layer of any thickness rather than only thin coatings
to glaciate
vsto ice over
  • Specialized
1 9.9

To become covered by ice or glaciers

means a surface layer forming relatively quickly not long lasting massive coverage

Antonyms

thaw
  • UK
21 2.0

A period when snow and ice melt because the weather is warmer

How Frozen

to freeze
215 1.0
to ice over
2 3.4
to ice up
3 4.3
to frost
3 2.2

Surface Forms

ice over infinitive
iced over past
iced over past participle
icing over present participle
ices over third person singular

Morphology

ice + over

The meaning 'to become covered with a layer of ice' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'ice' (frozen water) with the particle 'over' indicating coverage or across a surface. This verb+particle composition follows common English patterns (and similar concepts exist cross-linguistically), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The phrasal verb ice over shows the picture of ice forming over a surface: imagine a pond or a car window where ice spreads across and makes a hard sheet. So, it means 'to become covered with a layer of ice'.