icicle

noun

ici·cle ˈī-ˌsi-kəl

Synonyms of icicle next

: a pendent mass of ice formed by the freezing of dripping water

: an emotionally cold person

: a long narrow strip (as of foil) used to decorate a Christmas tree

Did you know?

Old English gicel, meaning icicle, became Middle English ikyl or ikel and later modern English ickle, which survives as a dialect word in Yorkshire, England. The word for ice in Old English is is, and in a manuscript of about the year 1000 we find Latin stiria, “icicle,” glossed, somewhat redundantly, as ises gicel, that is, “an icicle of ice.” Some 300 years later, in Middle English, this became the compound known today as icicle, which means precisely what it did 1000 years ago.

Examples of icicle in a Sentence

his wife is such an icicle you're lucky to get so much as a greeting from her

Recent Examples on the Web

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These attractions sit at the foot of the slope and many of them are cut into a rocky outcrop which is dripping with icicles and surrounded by a forest of soaring fir trees. —

Caroline Reid, Forbes, 8 Jan. 2025 For Christmas, the Armour building was decorated with ornament-laden garlands, wreaths with festive red bows and strings of hundreds of white icicle lights, even on the side of the property only construction workers see. —

Kate Marijolovic, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 Jan. 2025 Nothing drives this designer crazier than seeing icicle lights, oversized ornaments, and inflatable snowmen in my neighbors’ yards in February! —

Steven John, Architectural Digest, 26 Dec. 2024 The underwater life is still with her, in her thirties: the smell of chlorine, nylon straps digging into shoulders, hair clumped into icicles after predawn workouts in a Toronto suburb. —

The New Yorker, 24 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for icicle