cold fish
a person who is very reserved or aloof in manner or who lacks normal cordiality, sympathy, or other feeling.
Origin of cold fish
1Words Nearby cold fish
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use cold fish in a sentence
The two seamen made a good meal of some cold fish and bread and the bottle of wine, most of which latter going down Dan's throat.
Young Glory and the Spanish Cruiser | Walter Fenton MottTake any sort of cold fish, bone it, and then chop it with the remains of a cold omelet, and some mushrooms if you have them.
Domestic French Cookery, 4th ed. | Sulpice BaruIt was cold fish and sea-sodden hardtack till they saw land again—if they ever did.
The Valor of Cappen Varra | Poul William AndersonInto this pour creamed fish made by mixing equal proportions of left-over cold fish and white sauce.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3 | Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and SciencesTo possess these qualities opens one to the suspicion of being a cold fish.
The Unpopular Review Vol. I | Various
British Dictionary definitions for cold fish
an unemotional and unfriendly person
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
Other Idioms and Phrases with cold fish
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.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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