cold

Having a low temperature.

Adjective

  1. Having a low temperature.
    • A cold wind whistled through the trees.
    • As cold waters to a thirstie soule: so is good newes from a farre countrey. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 25:25:
    • Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy dominion! - 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Four. The Last of the...

    Synonyms: chilled chilly freezing frigid glacial icy cool

    Antonyms: baking boiling heated hot scorching searing torrid warm choleric tepid mild balmy

  2. Causing the air to be cold.
    • The forecast is that it will be very cold today.
    • As fruits of hotter countries, transearthed in colder climates, have vigour enough in themselves to be fructuous according to their nature: but, that they are hindered by the chilling nips of the air, and the soil,...
    • Antarctica is the coldest, iciest place on Earth, which makes the recent warming event particularly worrying for many scientists. […] Larter said this happens less frequently in the East Antarctic because the ocean...

    Synonyms: brass monkeys nippy parky taters

    Antonyms: hot choleric heated

  3. Feeling the sensation of coldness, especially to the point of discomfort.
    • She was so cold she was shivering.

    Antonyms: hot choleric heated

  4. Unfriendly; emotionally distant or unfeeling.
    • She shot me a cold glance before turning her back.
    • At the end of a week, she could bear the suspense no longer, and so went humbly to her old home and sought forgiveness. She was not repulsed, but her reception was cold; and this hurt her almost as badly. - 1850, T. S....
    • "Suppose someone pops in?" "Don't be silly. Mrs Cream is working on her book. Phyllis is in her room, typing Upjohn's speech. Wilbert's gone for a walk. Upjohn isn't here. The only character who could pop in would be...

    Synonyms: aloof distant hostile standoffish unfriendly unwelcoming cool frosty hankty hard-to-get offish quiet remote reserved strange thorny touch-me-not-ish unapproachable unbending undemonstrative unimpressionable uninvolved

    Antonyms: amiable friendly welcoming

  5. Chilled, filled with an uncomfortable sense of fear, dread, or alarm.
    • Yet oft when sundown skirts the moor ⁠An inner trouble I behold, ⁠A spectral doubt which makes me cold, That I shall be thy mate no more, […] - 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XL”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward...

    Synonyms: apprehensive

  6. Dispassionate; not prejudiced or partisan; impartial.
    • Let's look at this tomorrow with a cold head.
    • He's a nice guy, but the cold facts say we should fire him.
    • The cold truth is that states rarely undertake military action unless their national interests are at stake.

    Synonyms: disinterested indifferent candid cold clinical detached egal equal equitable evenhanded fairhanded fair-minded dispassionate impartial imprejudicate indistinguishing neuter neutral nonaligned nonpartial nonpartisan nonpersonal objective unbiased

  7. Completely unprepared; without introduction.
    • He was assigned cold calls for the first three months.
    • The one thing considered the brass ring in selling insurance was making a sale on a cold canvass. Cold canvassing was the most dreaded exercise for most insurance salesmen. - 2019, Kelly D. Harrison, Air Force Cop: An...

    Synonyms: unprepared unready

    Antonyms: prepared primed ready

  8. Unconscious or deeply asleep; deprived of the metaphorical heat associated with life or consciousness.
    • I knocked him out cold.
    • After one more beer he passed out cold.
    • Before Mr Big could utter another word, Dad’s false leg crashed down through the window… …and the wooden foot bashed Mr Big hard on the head. The crime boss collapsed to the floor, out cold. - 2017, David Walliams...
  9. Perfectly, exactly, completely; by heart; down pat.
    • Practice your music scales until you know them cold.
    • Try both these maneuvers until you have them cold and can do them in the dark without thinking.
    • Rehearse your lines until you have them down cold.
  10. Cornered; done for.
    • With that receipt, we have them cold for fraud.
    • Criminal interrogation. Initially they will dream up explanations faster than you could ever do so, but when they become fatigued, often they will acknowledge that you have them cold.
    • "Either Upjohn agrees to drop that libel suit or he doesn't get these notes, as he calls them, and without them he won't be able to utter a word. He'll have to come across with the price of the papers. Won't he,...
  11. Cool, impressive.
    • There were more than a few unforgettable moments from Sunday's Game 7 showdown between the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings. Steph Curry came up with an epic performance on a record-setting evening, and he...
    • Lowkey she so cold for that - 2023 August 3, @67x4L, Twitter, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2023:
    • Indians see this fit and think it's the coldest thing ever - 2023 August 6, @SUPERTHYROID, Twitter, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2023:
  12. Not pungent or acrid.
    • cold plants - 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by...

    Synonyms: mild neutral

Origin

Inherited from Middle English cold, from Anglian Old English cald. The West Saxon form, ċeald (“cold”), survived as early Middle English cheald, cheld, or chald. Both descended from Proto-West Germanic *kald, from Proto-Germanic *kaldaz, a participle form of *kalaną (“to be cold”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”). Cognates Cognate with Scots cald, cauld (“cold”), Saterland Frisian koold (“cold”), West Frisian kâld (“cold”), Dutch koud (“cold”), Low German kold, koolt, koold (“cold”), German kalt (“cold”), Danish kold (“cold”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk kald (“cold”), Swedish kall (“cold”).

Forms

colder coldest

Synonyms

algid Arctic Baltic boreal brass monkeys brumal chill chilled chilly clay-cold cold cold as a mackerel cold as charity freezing frosty frore frozen gelid glacial hiemal icy inclement nesh nippy

Antonyms

hot warm

Hyponyms

brisk cool crisp drafty benumbed bitter bleak bone-chilling cold as ice cold as a well-digger's arse cold as a witch's kiss cold as a witch's teat cold as a witch's tit cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey frigid

Related

cold snap frigidization Jack Frost one-dog night shivering three-dog night wind chill

Derived

acold a cold day in July anticold blow hot and cold bright lights and cold steel cold steel and bright lights bring someone out in a cold sweat bust ass cold clap cold clay-cold cold abscess cold agglutinin disease cold antibody cold approach cold-aridiphilous cold as a mackerel cold as a wagon tire cold as a well-digger's arse cold as a witch's kiss cold as a witch's tit cold as a witch's teat cold as a witch's tit in a brass bra cold as balls cold as charity

Adverb

  1. At a low temperature.
    • The steel was processed cold.
  2. Without preparation.
    • The speaker went in cold and floundered for a topic.
    • Two weeks after it closed, he started rehearsals for Cheer Up, a new play by Mary Roberts Rinehart booked into the Harris Theatre. It was to open cold without any out-of-town tryout under the direction of a young Cecil...
  3. In a cold, frank, or realistically honest manner.
    • Now Little Bo Peep cold lost her sheep / And Rip van Winkle fell the hell asleep - 1986, Run-DMC, Peter Piper.:

Origin

Inherited from Middle English colde, from Old English calde, ċealde (“coldly”), from the adjective (see above).

Forms

more cold most cold

Related

cool fresh lukewarm tepid

Derived

cut someone cold down cold out cold stop cold

Noun

  1. A condition of low temperature.
    • Come in, out of the cold.
  2. A harsh place; a place of abandonment.
    • The former politician was left out in the cold after his friends deserted him.
  3. A common, usually harmless, usually viral illness, usually with congestion of the nasal passages and sometimes fever.
    • I caught a miserable cold and had to stay home for a week
    • Dr. Jon S. Abramson, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Wake Forest Medical School, has found no medical evidence to support feeding a cold and starving a fever. He is particularly offended by the latter part of...
  4. Rheum; sleepy dust.
    • Who the fuck is this, pagin' me at 5:46 in the morning? / crack of dawn and now I'm yawnin' / wipe the cold out my eye, see who's this pagin' me and why - 1994, Notorious B.I.G., Warning:
    • But I remember this, moms would lick her finger tips / to wipe the cold out my eye before school with her spit - 1996, Ghostface Killah, All That I Got Is You:

Origin

Inherited from Middle English cold, colde, from Old English cald, ċeald (“cold, coldness”), from Proto-West Germanic *kald, from Proto-Germanic *kaldą (“coldness”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Keelde (“cold”), West Frisian kjeld (“cold”), Dutch koude (“cold”), German Low German Kolle, Koll (“cold”), German Kälte (“cold”), Danish kulde (“cold”), Swedish köld (“cold”), Norwegian kulde (“cold”), Icelandic kuldi (“cold”).

Forms

colds

Synonyms

coldness common cold coryza head cold pose

Derived

bitter cold catch a cold catch cold catch one's death of cold chest cold cold allergy cold-sensitive cold shock response cold sore cold urticaria cold virus come in from the cold common cold head cold in from the cold leave someone out in the cold paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria rose cold take cold