iced

1. 1
   adjective

   Cooled or served with ice added to it.

   The waiter brought a tall glass of iced lemonade to the table.

   Nothing beats an iced drink after a long run in the heat.

   Similarchilled, cold, cooled

   Oppositehot, warm

   Note

   Built from the noun ice plus -ed, the same pattern behind bearded or winged: the thing has been given ice, not frozen by anyone. It sits before the noun it describes, as in iced tea, iced lemonade or an iced drink. When ordering, iced tea often works as the name of the drink itself. The identical spelling in they iced the champagne comes from the verb instead, which is the past-tense form.

2. 2
   adjective

   Covered with a layer of icing on top or all around.

   The bakery window was full of iced gingerbread shaped like stars.

   Each iced cupcake was finished with a swirl of pink frosting.

   Similarfrosted, glazed

   Oppositeplain

3. 3
   adjective

   Extremely cold, even when no actual ice is present.

   The iced air bit at our faces as we climbed higher up the ridge.

   A draft of iced water from the spring numbed his fingers instantly.

   Similaricy, freezing, frigid, glacial, frosty

   Oppositewarm, hot, balmy

   Note

   Here the ice has become a matter of temperature. What counts is how cold the thing feels, not what floats in it. That makes an iced drink quietly ambiguous: it may hold cubes, as in the "ice added" meaning, or it may simply have been chilled. Context usually settles it. When the difference matters, "with ice" or "chilled" says plainly which one you mean.

4. 4
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of ice.

   They iced the champagne for an hour before serving it.

   The bakers iced dozens of cupcakes for the school festival.

   Note

   One spelling covers every verb ice has: a pond iced as the water froze, a sprained ankle iced, a cake iced, a team iced for a match, and a puck iced the length of the rink. After be, the participle can blur into the "covered with icing" adjective. The cake was iced at noon reports an action. The cake was iced and glossy describes its state.

5. 5
   adjective

   Having a glittering surface formed of tiny rounded bumps.

   The succulent's iced foliage caught the light like a dusting of frost.

   Each iced petal shimmered with thousands of tiny reflective points.

   Similarfrosted

   Note

   Botanical description borrows the look of ice for a surface texture. The glitter comes from papillae, minute rounded projections on the surface, which catch the light the way frost crystals do. In a plant description the word refers to that texture, not to temperature, so iced foliage is no colder than any other. It is applied to leaves and petals whose surfaces sparkle.

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