Cold

//kəʊld// adj, adv, noun, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having a low temperature.

    "A cold wind whistled through the trees."

  2. 2
    Causing the air to be cold.

    "The forecast is that it will be very cold today."

  3. 3
    Feeling the sensation of coldness, especially to the point of discomfort.

    "She was so cold she was shivering."

  4. 4
    Unfriendly; emotionally distant or unfeeling.

    "She shot me a cold glance before turning her back."

  5. 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, […]"

Show 17 more definitions
  1. 6
    Dispassionate; not prejudiced or partisan; impartial.

    "Let's look at this tomorrow with a cold head."

  2. 7
    Completely unprepared; without introduction.

    "He was assigned cold calls for the first three months."

  3. 8
    Unconscious or deeply asleep; deprived of the metaphorical heat associated with life or consciousness.

    "I knocked him out cold."

  4. 9
    Perfectly, exactly, completely; by heart; down pat. usually

    "Practice your music scales until you know them cold."

  5. 10
    Cornered; done for. usually

    "With that receipt, we have them cold for fraud."

  6. 11
    Cool, impressive. slang

    "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 also produced one of the coldest photos of the NBA Playoffs thus far."

  7. 12
    Not pungent or acrid. obsolete

    "cold plants"

  8. 13
    Unexciting; dull; uninteresting. obsolete

    "What a deal of cold business doth a man misspend the better part of life in!"

  9. 14
    Affecting the sense of smell (as of hunting dogs) only feebly; having lost its odour.

    "a cold scent"

  10. 15
    Not sensitive; not acute. obsolete

    "Smell this business with a sense as cold / As is a dead man's nose."

  11. 16
    Distant; said, in the game of hunting for some object, of a seeker remote from the thing concealed. Compare warm and hot.

    "You're cold … getting warmer … hot! You've found it!"

  12. 17
    Having a bluish effect; not warm in colour.
  13. 18
    Rarely used or accessed, and thus able to be relegated to slower storage.
  14. 19
    Without compassion; heartless; ruthless. informal

    "I can't believe she said that...that was cold!"

  15. 20
    Not radioactive. informal

    ""That's right," Jackson said. "The Old Man will be pleased to welcome you." There was eagerness in his reedy voice. "What do you say? We'll take care of you. Feed you, bring you cold plants and animals. For a week maybe?""

  16. 21
    Not loaded with a round of live ammunition.
  17. 22
    Without electrical power being supplied.

    "Therefore, to avoid unnecessary delay in the trouble-shooting procedure, it is good practice to make a resistance check on a "cold" circuit (before applying power), to determine whether resistance values are normal."

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking the warmth of life wordnet
  2. 2
    of a seeker; far from the object sought wordnet
  3. 3
    unconscious from a blow or shock or intoxication wordnet
  4. 4
    feeling or showing no enthusiasm wordnet
  5. 5
    having lost freshness through passage of time wordnet
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  1. 6
    having a low or inadequate temperature or feeling a sensation of coldness or having been made cold by e.g. ice or refrigeration wordnet
  2. 7
    extended meanings; especially of psychological coldness; without human warmth or emotion wordnet
  3. 8
    without compunction or human feeling wordnet
  4. 9
    sexually unresponsive wordnet
  5. 10
    so intense as to be almost uncontrollable wordnet
  6. 11
    lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new wordnet
  7. 12
    marked by errorless familiarity wordnet
  8. 13
    (color) giving no sensation of warmth wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    At a low temperature.

    "The steel was processed cold."

  2. 2
    Without preparation.

    "The speaker went in cold and floundered for a topic."

  3. 3
    In a cold, frank, or realistically honest manner. dated, informal, slang

    "Now Little Bo Peep cold lost her sheep / And Rip van Winkle fell the hell asleep"

Noun
  1. 1
    A condition of low temperature. uncountable

    "Come in, out of the cold."

  2. 2
    Acronym of computer output to laser disc. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable
  3. 3
    the absence of heat wordnet
  4. 4
    A harsh place; a place of abandonment. countable, figuratively, uncountable

    "The former politician was left out in the cold after his friends deserted him."

  5. 5
    the sensation produced by low temperatures wordnet
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  1. 6
    A common, usually harmless, usually viral illness, usually with congestion of the nasal passages and sometimes fever. countable

    "I caught a miserable cold and had to stay home for a week"

  2. 7
    a mild viral infection involving the nose and respiratory passages (but not the lungs) wordnet
  3. 8
    Rheum; sleepy dust. slang, uncountable

    "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"

Etymology

Etymology 1

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 kald (“cold”), Swedish kall (“cold”).

Etymology 2

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 Compare 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”).

Etymology 3

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

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