Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The limit of frost or freezing cold (modeled after snow-line).

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The outermost, a body about 10,000 miles in diameter and rich in both water vapor and carbon dioxide, exhibits a frost-line after midnight almost as far down as the equatorial belt, and it is permanently glaciated in both its northern and its southern sixths; but the tem -

    And all the Stars a Stage Blish, James 1960

  • It was what Farmer Green would have called "below frost-line."

    The Tale of Sandy Chipmunk Arthur Scott Bailey 1913

  • Coffee is found growing in all altitudes, from sea-level up to the frost-line, which is about 6,000 feet in the tropics.

    All About Coffee 1909

  • It is below the frost-line, also below the water-line.

    The University of Hard Knocks Ralph Parlette 1900

  • If your house is not a "mudsill" you may rest your sill logs upon posts or stone piles; in either case, in the Northern States, they should extend three feet below the ground, so as to be below frost-line and prevent the upheaval of the spring thaw from throwing your house "out of plumb."

    Shelters, Shacks and Shanties Daniel Carter Beard 1895

  • You may use a foundation of stones or a series of stone piles, but if you use stones and expect your house to remain plumb where the winters are severe you must dig holes for them at least three feet deep in order to go below the frost-line.

    Shelters, Shacks and Shanties Daniel Carter Beard 1895

  • The snow-crowned peaks looked like vast banks of clouds in the sky, while the craggy portions below the frost-line were mellowed by the distance and softly tinted in the clear, crystalline atmosphere.

    Two Boys in Wyoming A Tale of Adventure (Northwest Series, No. 3) Edward Sylvester Ellis 1878

  • November or December, they may be put into a little box with some of the moist soil of the garden, and buried in the ground below the usual frost-line -- say a foot or eighteen inches in our latitude.

    The Home Acre Edward Payson Roe 1863

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