cold fish

noun

Informal.

1. a person who is very reserved or aloof in manner or who lacks normal cordiality, sympathy, or other feeling.

cold fish

noun

1. an unemotional and unfriendly person

Word History and Origins

Origin of cold fish¹

First recorded in 1940–45

Idioms and Phrases

A hard-hearted, unfeeling individual, one who shows no emotion, as in Not even the eulogy moved him; he's a real cold fish. This expression was used by Shakespeare in The Winter's Tale (4:4): “It was thought she was a woman, and was turn'd into a cold fish.” However, it came into wider use only in the first half of the 1900s.