coldness

cold  (kld)

adj. cold·er, cold·est

1.

a. Having a low temperature.

b. Having a temperature lower than normal body temperature.

c. Feeling no warmth; uncomfortably chilled.

2.

a. Marked by deficient heat: a cold room.

b. Being at a temperature that is less than what is required: cold oatmeal.

c. Chilled by refrigeration or ice: cold beer.

3. Lacking emotion; objective: cold logic.

4. Having no appeal to the senses or feelings: a cold decor.

5.

a. Not affectionate or friendly; aloof: a cold person; a cold nod.

b. Exhibiting or feeling no enthusiasm: a cold audience; a cold response to the new play; a concert that left me cold.

c. Devoid of sexual desire; frigid.

6. Designating a tone or color, such as pale gray, that suggests little warmth.

7. Having lost all freshness or vividness through passage of time: dogs attempting to catch a cold scent.

8.

a. Marked by or sustaining a loss of body heat: cold hands and feet.

b. Appearing to be dead; unconscious.

c. Dead: was cold in his grave.

9. Marked by unqualified certainty or sure familiarity.

10. So intense as to be almost uncontrollable: cold fury.

11. Characterized by repeated failure, especially in a sport or competitive activity: The team fell into a slump of cold shooting.

adv.

1. To an unqualified degree; totally: was cold sober.

2. With complete finality: We turned him down cold.

3. Without advance preparation or introduction: took the exam cold and passed; walked in cold and got the new job.

n.

1.

a. Relative lack of warmth.

b. The sensation resulting from lack of warmth; chill.

2. A condition of low air temperature; cold weather: went out into the cold and got a chill.

3. A viral infection characterized by inflammation of the mucous membranes lining the upper respiratory passages and usually accompanied by malaise, fever, chills, coughing, and sneezing. Also called common cold, coryza.

Idiom:

out in the cold

Lacking benefits given to others; neglected.

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[Middle English, from Old English ceald; see gel- in Indo-European roots.]

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coldly adv.

coldness n.

Synonyms: cold, arctic, chilly, cool, frigid, frosty, gelid, glacial, icy
These adjectives mean marked by a low or an extremely low temperature: cold air; an arctic climate; a chilly day; cool water; a frigid room; a frosty morning; gelid seas; glacial winds; icy hands.

Antonym: hot

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Coldness 

See Also: REMOTENESS, RESERVE

1. (There was) a certain coldness, like that of a spinster about her —Boris Pasternak
2. Behave exactly like a block of ice —Noël Coward, lyrics for “I’m So In Love”
3. The chill in the air was like a constant infinitely small shudder —M. J. Farrell
4. (Some laughs are as) cold and meaningless as yesterday’s buckwheat pancake —Josh Billings

   In Billings’ phonetic dialect ‘as’ was written as ‘az.’

5. Cold as a dead man’s nose —William Shakespeare
6. Cold as a fish —American colloquialism, attributed to New England
7. Cold as a fish caught through the ice —F. van Wyck Mason
8. Cold as a hole in the ice —Bertold Brecht
9. (It grew as) cold as a key —Thomas Heywood
10. Cold as a lizzard —Walter Savage Landor

    In one of Landor’s Conversation pieces, he has Fra Filippo Lippi commenting to Pope Eugenius IV that while an ordinary person could use an expression like “Cold as ice, a true poet would reach for more originality.” The above is one suggestion, “Cold as a lobster” is another.

11. Cold as a miser’s heart —Donald Seaman
12. [A smile] cold as a moan —Marge Piercy
13. Cold as a murder’s heart —Richard Ford
14. Cold as an igloo —Reynolds Price
15. Cold as any stone —William Shakespeare
16. Cold … as a pane of glass —Reynolds Price
17. Cold as a snowman’s dick —William H. Gass
18. (A kiss) cold as bacon —Joyce Cary
19. Cold as charity —Anon

    An English phrase in use since the seventeenth century.

20. Cold as coldest hell —Sylvia Berkman

    In a short story entitled Who Killed Cock Robin, the simile describes a character’s personality and continues as follows: “Cruel to every fingernail, and invariably polite.”

21. Cold as dew to dropping leaves —Percy Bysshe Shelley
22. Cold as fears —Algernon Charles Swinburne
23. (I felt as) cold as Finnegan’s feet (the day they buried him) —Raymond Chandler
24. Cold as if I had swallowed snowballs —William Shakespeare

    A variation of this snowball simile from The Merry Wives of Windsor is from another Shakespeare play, Pericles: “She sent him away as cold as a snowball.”

25. (Your heart would be as heavy and) cold as iron shackles —George Garrett
26. Cold as Monday morning’s barrenness —F. D. Reeve
27. Cold as moonlight —Yvor Winters
28. (Face) cold as newsprint —Philip Levine
29. (Eyes) cold as river ice —Davis Grubb
30. Cold as snakes —American colloquialism, attributed to Northeast
31. (Men) cold as spring water —Julia O’Faolain
32. (The wet air was as …) cold as the ashes of love —Raymond Chandler
33. Cold as the cold between the stars —Terry Bisson
34. Cold as the north side of a grave stone in winter —Proverb
35. Cold as the snow —Lewis J. Bates
36. Cold as the tomb of Christ —Maxwell Anderson
37. Colder than a banker’s heart —William Diehl
38. Colder than a dead lamb’s tail —Anon
39. Colder than a lawyer’s heart —George V. Higgins
40. Colder than a witch’s tits —American colloquialism, attributed to the South

    Like many regional expressions that gained national currency during World War II, this one is often referred to as an Army expression.

41. (It was) colder than ice —Hans Christian Andersen

    Whether used as a pure simile “Cold as ice” or as cited above, the linking of snow and ice to cold has become as “Common as snowflakes in winter.” A story in the January 23, 1987 edition of the New York Times about a planned freedom march in Atlanta was highlighted with a blurb stating “We are going to march if it’s cold as ice … “proving once again that even without a new twist, a simile usually wins the spotlight.

42. Cold like a sea mist and as ungraspable —Sylvia Townsend Warner
43. Cold [in manner] like Christmas morning —Grace Paley
44. The cold was like a sleep —Wallace Stevens
45. The cold was like a thick vast sleep —Davis Grubb
46. Cool and smooth, like the breath of an air conditioner —T. Coraghessan Boyle
47. Cool as a snowbank —Louisa May Alcott
48. (Her bare arms and shoulders felt as) cool as marble —Leo Tolstoy
49. (Skin) cool as steel —Elizabeth Hardwick
50. (Voice) cool as water on shaded rocks —Beryl Markham
51. Could feel the cold climbing up his ankles like ships’ rats —Penelope Gilliatt
52. Hardened her heart, like God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart against the Jews —Daphne Merkin

    The simile was particularly appropriate in Enchantment, a novel about an orthodox Jewish family.

53. A heart as cold as English toast —Harry Prince
54. It [television show] was hard as fiberglass —Norman Mailer
55. My flesh was frozen for an inch below my skin, it was as if I were wearing icy armour —Rebecca West
56. Unresponding … like a wall —D. H. Lawrence

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	coldness - the sensation produced by low temperatures; "he shivered from the cold"; "the cold helped clear his head" cold temperature - the somatic sensation of cold or heat
	2.	coldness - a lack of affection or enthusiasm; "a distressing coldness of tone and manner" chilliness, iciness, frigidity, frigidness, coolness emotionlessness, unemotionality - absence of emotion stone - a lack of feeling or expression or movement; "he must have a heart of stone"; "her face was as hard as stone" lukewarmness, tepidness - lack of passion, force or animation
	3.	coldness - the absence of heat; "the coldness made our breath visible"; "come in out of the cold"; "cold is a vasoconstrictor" low temperature, cold, frigidity, frigidness pressor, vasoconstrictive, vasoconstrictor - any agent that causes a narrowing of an opening of a blood vessel: cold or stress or nicotine or epinephrine or norepinephrine or angiotensin or vasopressin or certain drugs; maintains or increases blood pressure temperature - the degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment (corresponding to its molecular activity) chill, gelidity, iciness - coldness due to a cold environment chilliness, coolness, nip - the property of being moderately cold; "the chilliness of early morning" frostiness - coldness as evidenced by frost cool - the quality of being at a refreshingly low temperature; "the cool of early morning" high temperature, hotness, heat - the presence of heat

Translations

coldness [ˈkəʊldnɪs] N

1. (lit) (= lack of heat) → frío m

2. (fig) (= hostility) → frialdad f

coldness [ˈkəʊldnɪs] n

(physical) [hands, feet, body, skin] → froideur f; [water, air] → froideur f; [weather, winter, day] → froideur f

(emotional) [person] → froideur f; [voice, eyes] → froideur f
cold shoulder n
to give sb the cold shoulder → battre froid à qn
cold-shoulder [ˌkəʊldˈʃəʊldə^r] vt [+ person] → battre froid à
cold snap n → vague f de froid (de courte durée)
cold sore n → bouton m de fièvre
cold storage n

to keep sth in cold storage [+ food] → mettre qch en chambre froide

to put sth into cold storage, to put sth in cold storage [+ idea, book, scheme] → mettre qch en attente
cold store n (British) (= building) → entrepôt m frigorifique (= room) → chambre f froide
cold sweat n
to be in a cold sweat → avoir des sueurs froides
to be in a cold sweat about sth → avoir des sueurs froides au sujet de qch
cold turkey n
to go cold turkey → décrocher
to be cold turkey → être en manque
Cold War n
the Cold War → la guerre froide

coldness

n (lit, fig) → Kälte f; (of answer, reception, welcome) → betonte Kühle; the unexpected coldness of the weather → die unerwartete Kälte; the coldness with which they planned the murder → die Kaltblütigkeit, mit der sie den Mord planten

coldness [ˈkəʊldnɪs] n (of weather, room) → freddo; (of person) → freddezza