hoar-frost

hoar-frost (countable and uncountable, plural hoar-frosts)

1. Alternative form of hoar frost
   • a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, London: A Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, , published 1768, →OCLC, page 156, lines 1166–1167:

     And novv the mounting ſun diſpels the fog; / The rigid hoar-froſt melts before his beam; […]

   • 1780 April 20, Patrick Wilson, “XXVI. An Account of a Most Extraordinary Degree of Cold at Glasgow in January Last; together with Some New Experiments and Observations on the Comparative Temperature of Hoar-frost and the Air near to It, Made at the Macfarlane Observatory Belonging to the College. ”, in Philosophical Transactions, of the Royal Society of London, volume LXX, part II, London: Lockyer Davis, and Peter Elmsly, printers to the Royal Society, →OCLC, pages 468–469:

     On Sunday night, January 23, ſeveral things vvere laid out at the Obſervatory, ſuch as ſheets of brovvn paper, pieces of boards, plates of metal, glaſſes of ſeveral kinds, &c. vvhich all began to contract hoar-froſt ſeemingly as ſoon as each body had time to cool dovvn to the temperature of the air. The ſheets of brovvn paper being ſo thin acquired it ſooneſt, and vvhen beheld in candle-light they became beautifully ſpangled over by innumerable reflections from the ſmall cryſtals of hoar-froſt vvhich had parted from the air.

   • 1857, “HOAR-FROST”, in John M. Wilson, editor, The Rural Cyclopedia, or A General Dictionary of Agriculture. , volumes II (D–I), Edinburgh, London: A Fullarton and Co. , →OCLC, page 657, column 1:

     The mean temperature of the day and night at which injurious hoar-frosts may occur, may, relatively to the freezing-point, be very high.

   • 1880, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “At the Sugar-loaves”, in Just as I Am , volume I, London: John and Robert Maxwell , →OCLC, page 183:

     The fields and hedgerows around Austhorpe were white with wintry rime, and all the trees were fairy-trees wreathed with hoar-frost.