chill

chill (ch

1. A moderate but penetrating coldness.

2. A sensation of coldness, often accompanied by shivering and pallor of the skin.

3. A checking or dampening of enthusiasm, spirit, or joy: bad news that put a chill on the celebration.

4. A sudden numbing fear or dread.

adj.

1. Moderately cold; chilly: a chill wind.

2. Not warm and friendly; distant: a chill greeting.

3. Discouraging; dispiriting: "Chill penury repressed their noble rage" Thomas Gray.

v. chilled, chill·ing, chills

v.tr.

1. To affect with or as if with cold.

2. To lower in temperature; cool.

3. To make discouraged; dispirit.

4. Metallurgy To harden (a metallic surface) by rapid cooling.

v.intr.

1. To be seized with cold.

2. To become cold or set: jelly that chills quickly.

3. Metallurgy To become hard by rapid cooling.

4. Slang

a. To calm down or relax. Often used with out.

b. To pass time idly; loiter. Often used with out.

c. To keep company; see socially. Often used with out.

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

chilling·ly adv.

chillness n.

Our Living Language In the 1980s and 1990s, chill gained currency as a slang term meaning "to relax, calm down." It is first recorded in 1979 and comes from Black English slang, which has frequently been a source of slang and informal words in Standard English, often through the medium of various African-American musical styles (in this case, rap and hip-hop). In fact, the word chill has had several incarnations as a slang term both inside and outside Black English. An older slang sense, recorded first in the 1870s, has been "to lose interest (in something), sour (on something)." Since the late 1920s it has also been used transitively to mean "to quash" and even "to kill." The recent use in the sense "to calm down" is another example of slang's innovativeness: English has always used words referring to heat and cold metaphorically to refer to emotions, and has used cool to refer to calmness since Old English times. Chill is a novel way of saying cool down, an old metaphor. The semantic evolution of chill continues as this is being written; the new sense of "to relax" has even more recently been extended to mean "to relax among friends, socialize." Chill thus offers a good example of how living languages are constantly changing in ways that are at once unpredictable and immediately comprehensible.

chill

Noun

1. a feverish cold

2. a moderate coldness

3. a feeling of coldness resulting from a cold or damp environment or from sudden fear

Verb

1. to make (something) cool or cold: chilled white wine

2. to cause (someone) to feel cold or frightened

3. Informal to calm oneself

Adjective

unpleasantly cold: chill winds [Old English ciele]

chilling adj
chillingly adv

ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms

Noun	1.	chill - coldness due to a cold environment gelidity, iciness low temperature, cold, frigidity, frigidness, coldness - the absence of heat; "the coldness made our breath visible"; "come in out of the cold"; "cold is a vasoconstrictor"
	2.	chill - an almost pleasurable sensation of fright; "a frisson of surprise shot through him" frisson, quiver, shudder, tingle, thrill, shiver fear, fearfulness, fright - an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight)
	3.	chill - a sensation of cold that often marks the start of an infection and the development of a fever shivering symptom - (medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease
	4.	chill - a sudden numbing dread pall apprehension, apprehensiveness, dread - fearful expectation or anticipation; "the student looked around the examination room with apprehension"
Verb	1.	chill - depress or discourage; "The news of the city's surrender chilled the soldiers" cast down, deject, depress, dismay, dispirit, demoralise, demoralize, get down - lower someone's spirits; make downhearted; "These news depressed her"; "The bad state of her child's health demoralizes her"
	2.	chill - make cool or cooler; "Chill the food" cool, cool down alter, change, modify - cause to change; make different; cause a transformation; "The advent of the automobile may have altered the growth pattern of the city"; "The discussion has changed my thinking about the issue" quench - cool (hot metal) by plunging into cold water or other liquid; "quench steel" ice - put ice on or put on ice; "Ice your sprained limbs" refrigerate - cool or chill in or as if in a refrigerator; "refrigerate this medicine"
	3.	chill - loose heat; "The air cooled considerably after the thunderstorm" cool, cool down change state, turn - undergo a transformation or a change of position or action; "We turned from Socialism to Capitalism"; "The people turned against the President when he stole the election"