Definitions

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

  • adjective Very cold; icy: synonym: cold.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Cold; very cold; icy.

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

  • adjective Cold; very cold; frozen.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Very cold; icy or frosty.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective extremely cold

Etymologies

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

[Latin gelidus, from gelū, frost; see gel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1630. From Latin gelidus ("cold"), from gelu ("frost").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Gelid light and air were in the kitchen but out of doors gentle summer morning everywhere.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 4

    December 31, 2006

  • "'...my collections come from one of the driest parts of the whole terraneous globe. They need very careful attention... Once they are tumbled and tossed unprepared, on the gelid billows, all is lost—their pristine glory is gone for ever.'"

    --P. O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 232

    March 16, 2008

  • Spätlese cooling in the gelid spring.

    - Peter Reading, C, 1984

    July 4, 2008

  • cold and gel are etymologically related words

    May 14, 2009

  • The kid's half eaten carcase in a gelid blood soup. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.

    March 2, 2012

  • She got a surprise, dead Nell did;

    She learned of a secret that hell hid:

    It’s no fiery bed

    But what you most dread.

    For warmth-loving Nell it is gelid.

    November 13, 2017