cold-blooded

[ kohld-bluhd-id ]
See synonyms for: cold-bloodedcold-bloodedness on Thesaurus.com

adjective
  1. designating or pertaining to animals, as fishes and reptiles, whose blood temperature ranges from the freezing point upward, in accordance with the temperature of the surrounding medium; poikilothermic.

  2. without emotion or feeling; dispassionate; cruel: a cold-blooded murder.

  1. sensitive to cold.

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Origin of cold-blooded

1
First recorded in 1585–95

Other words from cold-blooded

  • cold-blood·ed·ly, adverb
  • cold-blood·ed·ness, noun

Words Nearby cold-blooded

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cold-blooded in a sentence

  • It wasn't any scruple of mercy, for Hicks was as cold-blooded a brute as ever glanced down a gun-barrel.

    Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair
  • How dare you decide in this cold-blooded way whether I am to be called—ah—Tosh—or—ah—Porker!

    First Plays | A. A. Milne
  • If all the world did not wag his way, so much the worse for cold-blooded mercenary superfluous beings.

    Ancestors | Gertrude Atherton
  • He had fired, remembering that cold-blooded slaughter at the Weedham Industries plant.

  • Good heavens, Odin thought, what a cold-blooded obituary for any race!

    Hunters Out of Space | Joseph Everidge Kelleam

British Dictionary definitions for cold-blooded

cold-blooded

adjective
  1. having or showing a lack of feeling or pity: a cold-blooded killing

  2. informal particularly sensitive to cold

  1. (of all animals except birds and mammals) having a body temperature that varies with that of the surroundings: Technical term: poikilothermic

Derived forms of cold-blooded

  • cold-bloodedly, adverb
  • cold-bloodedness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for cold-blooded

cold-blooded

[ kōldblŭdĭd ]


  1. Having a body temperature that changes according to the temperature of the surroundings. Fish, amphibians, and reptiles are cold-blooded.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.