chilled to the bone

1. Also, chilled to the marrow. Extremely or bitterly cold, as in After skiing in the wind for five hours straight, I was chilled to the bone. These hyperboles replaced the earlier idea of one's blood freezing and are more picturesque than the current synonym frozen.

Example Sentences

As I left the memorial that night, I was emotionally drained, chilled to the bone from standing outside and deeply thankful that this time, for this shooting, I wouldn’t be staring at the blank wall of a hotel room all night.

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He was wearing two coats but was still, as he put it, “chilled to the bone.”

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I froze in the entrance of the Krupp Pavilion, chilled to the bone although the sun beat hot on my face.

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I flinched away, chilled to the bone, as if I had one foot back in that wintry afternoon when I’d first met him.

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These few errands left me chilled to the bone, so cold that not even the window displays at the clothing store called The Fad could draw me in.

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Related Words

• chilly 
• cold 
• freezing 
• frigid 
• frosty 
• glacial 
• polar 
• raw