From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishglacialgla‧cial /ˈɡleɪʃəl/ adjective 1 SGHErelating to ice and glaciers, or formed by glaciers a glacial valley glacial deposits2 FRIENDLYa glacial look or expression is extremely unfriendly SYN icy3 extremely slow Change was coming, but at a glacial pace.4 DNCOLDextremely cold SYN icy a glacial wind —glacially adverb
Examples from the Corpus
glacial• I am thinking geologic time, or at the very briefest, glacial.• In spite of the glacial air conditioning and his recent bath, his face was covered with sweat.• Davis, himself, paved the way for this when he admitted the existence of arid and glacial cycles of erosion.• Attempts to light a fire in the glacial dining-room had to be abandoned when it smoked out the house.• Some unnecessarily tricky camera work early on is taxing, as is the film's glacial pace.• But we are no longer limited by the glacial rate of natural genetic innovation.• It was decided to flood the glacial valley of Vyrnwy at the south-western end of the Berwyn Mountains.Origin glacial (1600-1700) Latin glacialis, from glacies “ice” 