chilly
Americanadjective
-
chillier,
comparative
-
chilliest
superlative
-
mildly cold or producing a sensation of cold; causing shivering; chill.
a chilly breeze.
-
feeling cold; sensitive to cold.
Her hands were chilly.
-
without warmth of feeling; cool.
a chilly reply.
-
producing or likely to produce a feeling of fear; frightening.
He told a chilly story of ghosts and murder.
adverb
adjective
-
causing or feeling cool or moderately cold
-
without warmth; unfriendly
-
(of people) sensitive to cold
Synonym Usage
See cold.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of chilly
Explanation
Did someone leave a window open? It's chilly in here! That word means "cold," and it can also mean that someone's acting in a frosty way. The main meaning of chilly is cold, but this word is often used for emotions too, just like "warm." A warm person is loving and kind, but a chilly person is unemotional, distant, and quiet. Chilly people are often called "aloof" — another word for someone who's not acting like a people person. "After you turned them in for cheating on their homework, they gave you a chilly reception."
Vocabulary lists containing chilly
Wintry Words
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Chill Out! Synonyms for "Cold"
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Sula
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sunday could get off to a chilly start with a grass frost in rural eastern areas.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
A grandson of a co-founder of Texaco, Mr. Lloyd grew up lonely and introspective on a 400-acre estate in New Canaan, Conn. His father was chilly and remote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
So it will be notably chilly on Monday morning, perhaps with some fog patches to be aware of for the commute.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Spacious, chilly and cloaked in an earthy scent, they hold hundreds of oak barrels and several towering steel tanks full of maturing wine.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
The air was still chilly, but at least I could breathe without my tongue freezing.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Brisk northerly winds will make it feel even chillier than the actual temperatures would suggest - especially around eastern coasts of Scotland and England.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Basin, while the afternoons see air over the chillier ocean water move inland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Ads on “cooler screens,” i.e., digital ads projected on the doors of refrigerated cases in supermarkets, get a much chillier reception, with 41% of respondents viewing them negatively, the report found.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
With spooky season in full swing, curating fall vibes is essential to truly enjoying our chillier months.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2025
The skies grew sullen and the air chillier, but it wasn’t until the third day that the snow came.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
The actress asked Wintour what she thought of her dress, to which Wintour put on her shades—and her chilliest tone—and said, “And the nominees are.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
This was also the year with the chilliest night - just 4.2C at nearly Yeovilton.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2025
The chilliest, darkest place in the unseen ocean of the soul.
From Salon ● Mar. 22, 2025
The month ended up 1.6 degrees below the norm and was the chilliest in five years.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 14, 2023
Instead of the Presence a note couched in the chilliest terms: 'Dear Friend, 'Mrs. Diedrich is shockingly unwell to-day, and I cannot leave her.
From Despair's Last Journey by David Christie Murray
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
