Definition of "ice"

ice

/aɪs/

noun
usually uncountable, plural ices
1. Water in frozen (solid) form.
  Quotations
  If thou doſt marry, Ile giue thee / This plague to thy dowry: / Be thou as chaſte as yce, as pure as ſnowe, / Thou ſhalt not ſcape calumny, to a Nunnery goe.
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, [Act III, scene i]
  It has always been difficult to explain how ice is formed on the surface of oceans while the temperature of maximum density is lower than that of cogelation, and the observations on this lake were instituted in the hope that they might throw light upon the subject.
  1882, Popular Science Monthly (volume 20), "The Freezing of a Salt Lake"
  Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.
  2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8835, page 80
2. (physics, astronomy) Any frozen volatile chemical, such as ammonia or carbon dioxide.
3. (astronomy) Any volatile chemical, such as water, ammonia, or carbon dioxide, not necessarily in solid form, when discussing the composition of e.g. a planet as an ice giant vs a gas giant.
  Quotations
  Above the core is the lower-density liquid mantle composed of ice materials under high pressure and temperature. This massive liquid layer would not be separated into layers of traditional ice compounds, but mixtures of radically different compounds originally consisting of water, carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia […] Since the mass of the planet is dominated by the liquid mantle that itself consists of heated ices under pressure, both Uranus and Neptune are classified as giant ice planets.
  2010 March 15, Lance K. Erickson, Space Flight: History, Technology, and Operations, Government Institutes, page 145
  Uranus and Neptune are […] usually classified separately as ice giants because they contain a much higher proportion of ice-forming substances such as water, ammonia, and methane. […] In the case of Uranus, the ice mantle must make up between 9.3 and 13.4 Earth masses worth of the total mass of the planet, which is 14.5 Earth masses. Similar proportions apply to Neptune. The commonly used term "ice mantle" is someone misleading, since the substance is actually a hot, slushy mixture that would be more aptly described as a water–ammonia ocean.
  2010 December 2, Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, Principles of Planetary Climate, Cambridge University Press, page 20
  Neptune has one major moon: Triton, which is comparable in size to the Jovian moon Europa and at an average density of 2.061 g/cm3 widely understood to be covered by several hundred km of frozen or liquid ice.
  2022, Geophysical Exploration of the Solar System, Elsevier, page 45
4. (figuratively) Something having an extreme coldness of manner.
  Quotations
  Her eyes flash with anger, her voice ice. "You afraid of the law? You haven't changed. I want you out of my house now."
  2023 January 27, Gay Degani, “Scablands”, in The Saturday Evening Post‎, Indianapolis, I.N.: Saturday Evening Post Society, archived from the original on 2023-01-29
5. (ice hockey) The area where a game of ice hockey is played.
  Quotations
  The neighbouring countries have enjoyed many great battles on the ice. They last met for gold at the 1998 world championship, won by Sweden. Three years earlier, Finland bested Sweden for the only world title in its history.
  2006, CBC, Finland, Sweden 'the dream final', February 26 2002
6. (now dialectal) Icing; frosting ("a sweet, often creamy and thick glaze made primarily of sugar").
  Quotations
  Well weddings, they were just the usual ... my big brother was married in the Masonic and the Co-operative done the party. Steak pie and tatties, and all that sort of stuff. The wee square Albert cake with ice on it, fruit cake. Then the wee dance after that. There was no drinking at oor wedding!
  1990, Jean Faley, quoting John McKee, Up Oor Close: Memories of Domestic Life in Glasgow Tenements, 1910–1945, Wendlebury, Oxon: White Cockade, page 132
7. (countable)
  1. A frozen dessert made of fruit juice, water and sugar.
  2. (UK, dated) An ice cream.
  3. (obsolete) An individual piece of ice.
8. (crime, slang)
  1. Elephant or rhinoceros ivory that has been poached and sold on the black market.
  2. An artifact that has been smuggled, especially one that is either clear or shiny.
  3. Money paid as a bribe.
    Quotations
    Theater operators, theater party agents, playwrights, and others who have ready access to tickets may get in on the “ice” and sometimes the producer is in on it too.
    1960, United States. Congress, Congressional Record
    This “ice” is bribe money paid to public officials to purchase protection for illegal activities. […] Just consider the “ice” money available to the men involved in the examples just cited.
    1970, Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates
  4. One or more diamonds and jewelry, especially blood diamonds.
    Quotations
    But you can't give cred to anything dude says / Same dude to give you ice and you owe him some head
    2002, “Blueprint²”, performed by Jay-Z
    Ice on the wrist with the ice in the chains.
    2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown‎, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG
  5. (drugs) The crystal form of amphetamine-based drugs.
    Quotations
    There were times when she could tell the Washingtons were overwhelmed by Jahlil's difficult ways, and one time Jessie even had the nerve to ask Carmiesha if she had smoked anything like crack or ice while she was pregnant with him.
    2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World/Ballantine Books, page 122
verb
third-person singular simple present ices, present participle icing, simple past and past participle iced
1. (intransitive) To become ice; to freeze.
2. (transitive) To cool with ice, as a beverage.
  Quotations
  To treat runner's knee, you need to rest from running or any other high-impact activity, ice the knee, and strengthen the quadriceps through weight training.
  2008, Deirdre Pitney, Donna Dourney, Triathlon Training For Dummies, page 240
3. (transitive) To make icy; to freeze.
4. (transitive) To cover with icing (frosting made of sugar and milk or white of egg); to frost; as cakes, tarts, etc.
5. (transitive, ice hockey) To put out a team for a match.
6. (transitive, ice hockey) To shoot the puck the length of the playing surface, causing a stoppage in play called icing.
7. (transitive, slang) To murder.
  Quotations
  Not long afterwards Wolf rings him up. 'I want you to ice someone for £15,000, he says. "No one you know."
  2011, Gavin Knight, Hood Rat, London: Picador, page 158