thaw

Meanings

Verb

• To gradually melt, dissolve, or become fluid; to soften from frozen
• To become so warm as to melt ice and snow — said in reference to the weather, and used impersonally.
• To grow gentle or genial.
• To gradually cause frozen things (such as earth, snow, ice) to melt, soften, or dissolve.

Noun

• The melting of ice, snow, or other congealed matter; the resolution of ice, or the like, into the state of a fluid; liquefaction by heat of anything congealed by frost
• a warmth of weather sufficient to melt that which is frozen

Origin

• From Middle English thowen, thawen, from Old English þāwian, from Proto-West Germanic *þauwjan, from Proto-Germanic *þawjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂- ("to melt").