rime means archaic in the form rimes: originally, any frozen dew forming a white deposit on exposed surfaces; hoar frost (sense 1).
rime is pronounced /ɹaɪm/.
Why “rime” is a great word
A white, granular or crystalline frost formed by the rapid freezing of supercooled water droplets in fog or cloud upon striking a cold surface. From Middle English *rim*, *rime*, from Old English *hrīm* (“frost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrīm* (“rime; hoar frost”), from Proto-Germanic *hrīmą*/*hrīmaz*, probably from Proto-Indo-European *krey-* (“to graze, touch; to streak”). Unlike “frost” (a broader blanket of ice crystals from frozen vapor) or “dew” (its liquid precursor), rime is the violent, instantaneous arrest of water in motion. It is the feathery accretion on a mountain spruce, the white armor encasing a ship’s rigging, the impossible, weightless sculpture built droplet by droplet on a wire fence—the visible record of a fog’s sudden, arrested motion, each filament a testament to the air’s invisible moisture made suddenly tangible by the sharp, grazing touch of cold.
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English rim, rime, rym, ryme (“hoar frost; rime”), from Old English hrīm (“frost”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrīm (“rime; hoar frost”), from Proto-Germanic *hrīmą (North Germanic), *hrīmaz, *hrīmô (“rime; hoar frost”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to graze, touch; to streak”).
The verb is derived from the noun. (The Old English equivalent, which did not survive into modern English, was behrīman.)
Cognates
* Middle Dutch riim, rijm, rīm (modern Dutch rijm (“hoar frost”))
* Old Danish *rim (only in rimfrost (“rime frost”); modern Danish rim (“hoar frost”))
* Old French rime, rimee (Middle French rime, rimee (“hoar frost”), Anglo-Norman rime, rimee (“hoar frost”))
* Old High German rīm (Middle High German rīm, Bavarian Reim (“dew; fog; light fros
noun
- Archaic in the form rimes: originally, any frozen dew forming a white deposit on exposed surfaces; hoar frost (sense 1).
- A film or slimy coating.
- White hair as an indication of old age.e.g.“Tales that have the rime of age, / And chronicles of Eld.”
- Ice formed by the rapid freezing of cold water droplets of fog on to a cold surface.
- A coating or sheet of ice so formed.
- A cold fog or mist.
- The second part of a syllable, from the vowel on (as opposed to the onset).
- A narrow aperture or opening; a chink, a crack, a fissure; a rent, a rip.
verb
- To cover (something) with rime (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1 or etymology 1, noun sense 3.1) or (loosely) hoar frost.
- To cover (something) with a thin coating or film; to coat.
- Sometimes followed by up: of a thing: to become covered with rime or (loosely) hoar frost.
- Followed by up: to count (something); to number, to reckon.
- Synonym of ream.; To enlarge (a hole), especially using a tool such as a reamer.
- Synonym of ream.; To remove debris from inside (something, such as a freshly bored hole or a pipe) using a tool.
- To dye (wool or yarn) reddish-brown by boiling or soaking in water with alder twigs.
- Followed by into: to probe, to pry.e.g.“Our act was, with finger, and nail, and eye, to rime into every jot of it [a case]; and our words were—'I am sure there is something inside. If not, it would open sensibly.'”