frost, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

frost n.

1. (orig. theatre) a failure.

1876		London & Provincial Entr’acte 18 Mar. 4/2: ‘Failure’ said the querist. [...] ‘Oh, now I know, “f-r-o s-t,”’ chimed in Loose Fish.
1880		N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 25 Sept. 14/2: Louise Pomeroy [...] is an American actress of no particular repute. She will probably be as big a ‘frost’ as jane Coombes unless Alf. Hayman finds some way of working the oracle.
1881		Daily L.A. Herald 13 Aug. 2/3: Cull, you should have seen the frost his jags struck when he went on [i.e. on stage].
1886		Sporting Times 13 Feb. 1/5: He might know something about producing pantomimes, but as a rescuer of distressed beauty he was a frost.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 12/1: The late Mayor’s ball in Melbourne was a frost.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 6 May. 1/6: The bankwet was a frost, only about fifty bein’ there, and nearly awl of them bein’ deadheads.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 57: Me friend de barkeep had put his own good plunks in de ball, and if it was a frost he never could give anodder.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 98: I endeavoured once upon a time to take a leaf out of the worthy Nathaniel’s book, but it turned out a fearful frost.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 1 May 1/1: On account of the ‘freeze’ the performance was a terrible ‘frost’.
1907		Gem 30 Mar. 14: It’s a ghastly frost, but he meant well.
1917		W.Y. Stevenson At the Front in a Flivver 31 July 🌐 Then they asked—no, really begged, us to sing ‘Tipperary.’ Well, we sang it, of course. Nobody really knew it and it was a frost.
1920		T. Thursday ‘Mr. Mister’ in All-Story Weekly 22 May 🌐 If a guy is a frost he tries to get thawed out by taking a home-run fit and somersaulting into imaginary hysterics.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 417: Talk about a frost!
1952		G. Meek ‘The Ballad of the Rouseabout’ Station Days in Maoriland 95: Tall yarns we spun of jobs we’d done, / And jobs that were a frost.
1960		D. Abse House of Cowards (1967) 44: ‘They made a proper charlie out of us’, ‘A real frost’.
1983		(con. 1940s) D. Nobbs Second From Last in the Sack Race 82: I feel a bit of a frost, Mr Barrett – always catching colds and letting the office down.

2. coolness (between two people).

1892		W. Norr Stories of Chinatown 43: The girl [...] had given so many good people the ‘frost’, becoming the property of a Chinaman.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 32: While she is on her way [i.e. into society] she’ll get many a frost, but after she lands she’ll even up on the other candidates.
1909		Van Loan ‘The Low Brow’ in Big League (2004) 21: Looks like Biff is up against frost.
1928		A.C. Inman 14 Apr. diary in Aaron (1985) 368: It was a frost, to my way a’ thinkin’.
1939		R. Chandler ‘Trouble Is My Business’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 196: He came on [the phone] at once, with plenty of frost.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 143: She plays the frost for all who are not well established as practically zillionaires.
1962		J. Blake letter 7 July in Joint (1972) 184: I got such frost I decided against calling him again.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 102: What really put a frost on the visit was the night I took the kids out to see The Exorcist III and [...] Jason woke up the whole house with a screaming nightmare.
2013		S. Adelberg ‘Come On Homein ThugLit July-Aug. [ebook] ‘[T]he frost between you two? Your friends have seen how bad it can get’.

3. (US black) cocaine.

1979

‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 209: Let’s get the fuck outta here for a blow of frost and a bath.

In compounds

frost-bitten (adj.)

(US drugs) under the influence of cocaine.

2002

‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 155: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Pusherman. Hustla. Thoroughbred. Iced-down. Frost-bitten.

frost-nail (n.) [SE frost-nails, nails driven through a horseshoe to prevent slipping on ice; a similar device could be used for human footwear; ? a play on caulker n. (1) (see cit. 1912)]

(Irish) an alcoholic drink, esp. one taken at the end of a meal.

1844		Cork Examiner 14 June 2/6: They then went out and bought my chummy and I a couple of frost nails, which making us rather drowsy, we agreed to go to bed.
1844		Punch VI 229/1: The Jedges ballyragged each other in regard o’ the thrials, instead of eatin’ their lunchin’ an takin’ their frost-nail afther it.
1912		N&Q V 87: In a small Scottish dictionary printed at Edinburgh in 1818 I find cawker, ‘a frost nail ; also a glass of strong whisky’.
1922		Irish Monthly 50 139: He was heaping ridicule on the drink fetish : ‘The baby is born, and there must be drink at the christening [...] Are you going on a journey, put up a frost-nail.’.