Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having a low temperature.
  • adjective Being at a temperature that is less than what is required or what is normal.
  • adjective Chilled by refrigeration or ice.
  • adjective Feeling no warmth; uncomfortably chilled.
  • adjective Appearing to be dead; unconscious.
  • adjective Dead.
  • adjective Lacking emotion; objective.
  • adjective Having little appeal to the senses or feelings.
  • adjective Designating or being in a tone or color, such as pale gray, that suggests little warmth.
  • adjective Not affectionate or friendly; aloof.
  • adjective Exhibiting or feeling no enthusiasm.
  • adjective Devoid of sexual desire; frigid.
  • adjective Having lost all freshness or vividness through passage of time.
  • adjective So intense as to be almost uncontrollable.
  • adjective Characterized by repeated failure, especially in a sport or competitive activity.
  • adverb To an unqualified degree; totally.
  • adverb With complete finality.
  • adverb Without advance preparation or introduction.
  • noun Relative lack of warmth.
  • noun The sensation resulting from lack of warmth; chill.
  • noun A condition of low air temperature; cold weather.
  • noun 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.
  • idiom (out in the cold) Lacking benefits given to others; neglected.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To grow cold.
  • Epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis in horses.
  • The testing of the ductility of iron and steel bars and plates by bending, while cold, to a certain angle, 90°, both with and across the grain, to determine whether this can be done without fracture.
  • noun The sensation produced by sensible loss of heat from some part of the body, particularly its surface; especially, the sensation produced by contact with a substance having a sensibly lower temperature than the body.
  • noun The relative absence or want of heat in one body as compared with another; especially, the physical cause of the sensation of cold.
  • noun In physical, a temperature below the freezing-point of water: thus, 10° of cold, C., means 10° below zero. C.; 10° of cold, F., means 22° F.
  • noun An indisposition commonly ascribed to exposure to cold; especially, a catarrhal inflammation of the mucous membrane of the nose, pharynx, larynx, trachea, bronchi, or bronchial tubes.
  • Producing the peculiar kind of sensation which results when the temperature of certain points on the skin is lowered; especially, producing this sensation with considerable or great intensity, an inferior degree of intensity being denoted by the word cool; gelid; frigid; chilling: as, cold air; a cold stone; cold water.
  • Physically, having a low temperature, or a lower temperature than another body with which it is compared: without direct reference to any sensation produced: as, the sun grows colder constantly through radiation of its heat.
  • Having the sensation induced by contact with a substance of which the temperature is sensibly lower, especially much lower, than that of the part of the body touching it, inferior degrees of the sensation being denoted by cool, chill, chilly.
  • Dead.
  • Figuratively Affecting the senses only slightly; not strongly perceptible to the smell or taste.
  • Not fresh or vivid; faint; old: applied in hunting to scent, and in woodcraft to trails or signs not of recent origin.
  • In the game of hunt-the-thimble and similar games, distant from the object of search: opposed to warm, that is, near, and hot, very near.
  • Affecting or arousing the feelings or passions only slightly.
  • Not heated by sensual desire; chaste.
  • Not moving or exciting feeling or emotion; unaffecting; not animated or animating; not able to excite feeling or interest; spiritless: as, a cold discourse; cold comfort.
  • Unmoved by interest or strong feeling; imperturbable; deliberate; cool.
  • Having lost the first warmth, as of feeling or interest.
  • In art, blue in effect, or inclined toward blue in tone; noting a tone, or hue, as of a pigment, or an effect of light, into the composition of which blue enters, though the blue may not be apparent to the eye: as, a picture cold in tone.
  • Discouraging; worrying; inspiring anxiety.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The relative absence of heat or warmth.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English cald, the Anglian form of West Saxon ċeald, from Proto-Germanic *kaldaz, a participle form of *kal- (“cold”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”). Cognate with West Frisian kâld, Dutch koud, German kalt, Swedish kall, Danish kold and Bokmål kald.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Remember, the best way to keep warm is not to get cold in the first place.

    October 17, 2007

  • I count on Wordie for this sage advice.

    October 17, 2007

  • It's a good argument for staying indoors 24/7. I like that kind of affirmation.

    October 17, 2007

  • Just make sure your phlogiston tank isn't running on empty.

    October 17, 2007

  • It's okay, I've got enough hot air to last all winter.

    October 17, 2007