Meaning & use
ice
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Meanings
noununcountable
Water that has frozen solid.
Grammar: No plural: some ice, not an ice.
Patterns
- on ice
- a piece of ice
The pond was covered with thick ice.
Do you want ice in your drink?
Be careful, there is ice on the road.
nouncountableBritishold-fashioned
A frozen dessert, such as water ice or ice cream (chiefly British).
Grammar: Countable: two ices.
We bought two ices at the pier.
He ordered a lemon ice.
verbtransitive
To put icing on a cake or pastry.
Grammar: Takes an object: ice the cake.
Patterns
- ice something
She iced the cupcakes with pink frosting.
Let the cake cool before you ice it.
verbtransitive
To cool or treat something, such as an injury, with ice.
Grammar: Takes an object: ice your knee.
Patterns
- ice something
The trainer iced his ankle after the game.
You should ice the bruise for twenty minutes.
verbphrasal verb
To become covered with ice, usually with up or over.
Grammar: Intransitive with a particle: the lake iced over.
Patterns
- ice over
- ice up
The windshield iced up overnight.
The lake iced over in December.
Word forms
| third person singular | ices |
|---|---|
| past tense | iced |
| past participle | iced |
| -ing form | icing |
Common combinations
- ice cube
- Add an ice cube to the glass.
- thin ice
- Don't skate on thin ice.
- break the ice
- A joke helped break the ice.
- crushed ice
- Serve the drink over crushed ice.
- ice over
- Roads can ice over at night.
Synonyms and how they differ
- frost
- A thin white coating of frozen moisture, not a solid block.
- hail
- Frozen rain falling as hard pellets, unlike ice on a surface.
- frost (verb, cakes)
- American term for icing a cake; ice is the usual British choice.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: ice or ice/iced?
ice vs ice/iced
Iced describes something chilled with ice (iced tea) or covered with icing (iced cake); ice is the substance.
Practice
The coach told him to ___ his knee after the match.
Choose one answer.
As a verb, ice means to cool an injury with ice. Frost does not work this way, and the other options are not grammatical.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ice”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.