freezing lake

[Michael30000]

Hello everyone,

From the TV series Abandoned Engineering, Season 3, Episode 2.

Narrator: A sprawling guarded compound, partly immersed in a nearby freezing lake.

Does "freezing lake" mean that the water in it is very cold?
Or does it mean that the lake is covered with ice?

Thank you.

 

[Uncle Jack]

Probably the water was close to freezing point. If the lake was covered by ice, then it would be a frozen lake.

 

[pops91710]

Does "freezing lake" mean that the water in it is very cold?
Or does it mean that the lake is covered with ice?

Very interesting observation. I can't be sure, but it sounds to me as if the lake is in the freezing process, i.e not yet frozen.

(cross-posted with Uncle Jack.)

 

[Delvo]

I usually hear "freezing" as an impression of what an experience is like or would be like for a person: if you were there, freezing is how it would feel.

 

[pops91710]

I usually hear "freezing" as an impression of what an experience is like or would be like for a person: if you were there, freezing is how it would feel.

That's true, but it doesn't sound like that in this case. I think the narrator really meant that the lake was in the process of freezing over which is what caused the damage over the years to the submerged portions of the compound.

 

[Uncle Jack]

We cannot tell without context, but I took "freezing" just to mean very cold, not that it was in the process of icing over, nor that the lake repeatedly ices over.