icicle
noun
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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
Wendy Bowman, Robb Report, 25 Sep. 2024
The conditions on some patrols were so extreme that eyelashes turned to icicles and neck buffs froze solid.
—Ben Taub, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2024
True to its name, the Temperature area featured a mountain of pillows and throws on an oversized bed, as well as comforters that were hung to look like icebergs and a lighting fixture made of blue cone-like forms that resembled icicles.
—Rosemary Feitelberg, WWD, 8 Aug. 2024
Among the unconfirmed events was the story that Arbuckle had used an icicle from an ice sculpture to penetrate the victim.
—Allen Salkin, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for icicle 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'icicle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Icicle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/icicle. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.
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icicle
noun
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