refrigerate

English

Etymology

From participle stem of Latin refrigerō (“to make cold”), from re- + frigerō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈfɹɪd͡ʒəɹeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

refrigerate (third-person singular simple present refrigerates, present participle refrigerating, simple past and past participle refrigerated)

1. (transitive, obsolete in general sense) To make (someone or something) cool; to cool down.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     [T]he other [artery] goes to the lungs, to fetch air to refrigerate the heart.

   • 1702, Cotton Mather, “).] Chapter I. Christus Super Aquas: Relating Wonderful Sea Deliverances.”, in Magnalia Christi Americana: Or, the Ecclesiastical History of New-England, from Its First Planting in the Year 1620. unto the Year of Our Lord, 1698. , London: Thomas Parkhurst, , →OCLC, section VI (Sore Calamities at Sea Survived), page 5, column 2:

     They vvould go over board vvith a Rope faſtned about them, that by drenching themſelves a vvhile in the Sea, they might eaſe the internal Heat vvhich parched them; and vvhen they ſtood any of them to ſteer the Veſſel, they vvould have their Feet in a Pail of Sea VVater to refrigerate 'em.

   • 1900, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 104:

     Persons born in winter are, so to say, of a cold and frosty disposition and can thereby exert a refrigerating influence on the temperature of the air.

2. (transitive, specifically) To keep (something) cool by containing within a refrigerator.

   Synonym: fridge

   Please refrigerate your uncooked meats at or below 40° Fahrenheit.

Related terms

• refrigerant
• refrigeration
• refrigerator

Translations

See also

• refrigeration on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

refrigerate

1. inflection of refrigerare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

refrigerate f pl

1. feminine plural of refrigerato

Latin

Verb

refrīgerāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of refrīgerō

Spanish

Verb

refrigerate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of refrigerar combined with te