cold

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   lacking the warmth of life

   They were cold in their grave.

2. 2
   adj

   unconscious from a blow or shock or intoxication

   the boxer was out cold

3. 3
   adj

   feeling or showing no enthusiasm

   a cold audience

4. 4
   adj

   having lost freshness through passage of time

   a cold trail

5. 5
   adj

   having a low or inadequate temperature or feeling a sensation of coldness or having been made cold by e.g. ice or refrigeration

   a cold climate

6. 6
   adj

   extended meanings

   especially of psychological coldness

7. 7
   adj

   without compunction or human feeling

   in cold blood

8. 8
   adj

   sexually unresponsive

   We were cold to the couple's advances.

Etymology

From Middle English cold, from Anglian Old English cald. The West Saxon form, ċeald (“cold”), survived as early Middle English cheald, cheld, or chald. Both descended from Proto-West Germanic *kald, from Proto-Germanic *kaldaz, a participle form of *kalaną (“to be cold”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”). Cognates Cognate with Scots cald, cauld (“cold”), Saterland Frisian koold (“cold”), West Frisian kâld (“cold”), Dutch koud (“cold”), Low German kold, koolt, koold (“cold”), German kalt (“cold”), Danish kold (“cold”), Norwegian kald (“cold”), Swedish kall (“cold”).