cold-blooded
Americanadjective
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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.
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without emotion or feeling; dispassionate; cruel.
a cold-blooded murder.
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sensitive to cold.
adjective
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having or showing a lack of feeling or pity
a cold-blooded killing
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informal particularly sensitive to cold
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Technical term: poikilothermic. (of all animals except birds and mammals) having a body temperature that varies with that of the surroundings
Other Word Forms
- cold-bloodedly adverb
- cold-bloodedness noun
Etymology
Origin of cold-blooded
First recorded in 1585–95
Compare meaning
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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.
But there’s a biological reason: Sea turtles are cold-blooded, and don’t heal as fast as creatures with warm blood pumping through their veins.
From Los Angeles Times
He had to wear shorts, even in the coldest weather, which wasn’t that great when you were a cold-blooded creature.
From Literature
While many see Yamagami as a cold-blooded murderer, some sympathise with his troubled upbringing.
From BBC
But Eisenstein’s staging, and in particular the editing, create a microcosm of the authorities’ cold-blooded reaction to popular unrest across Russia.
He said the Croatian journalist was trying to "present me as a monster, as an inhuman, as someone who not only has no emotions, but is a cold-blooded murderer".
From BBC
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.
