What does "cold call" mean?

A sales call either by telephone or personal presence, made without a referral or without preparing the recipient of the call.

Cold call

Common synonyms include: informational call, outbound call, phone prospect, prospecting call, random call, random questioning.

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A sales call either by telephone or personal presence, made without a referral or without preparing the recipient of the call.
"I got a cold call in the middle of dinner from someone trying to sell roofing and siding because they're allegedly working in my area this week."
2
A call of a bet and one or more raises made by a player who has not already contributed to the pot in the current betting round, usually with further action from the original bettor or raiser yet to come.

Verb

"I got a cold call in the middle of dinner from someone trying to sell roofing and siding because they're allegedly working in my area this week."