cold fish

American  

noun

Informal.

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

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cold fish British  

noun

1. an unemotional and unfriendly person

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cold fish Idioms  

1. 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.

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Etymology

Origin of cold fish

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cold fish

“I used to say, ‘I don’t understand why you’re such a cold fish,’ and George would say, ‘I may be a cold fish, but you’re full of beans’ — and that was our chemistry.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026

Detractors called him “Slippery Slade” and “living proof that not all cold fish comes in a can.”

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 21, 2020

He introduces her to fine dining, fancy clothes, discreet makeup and the opera, while she transforms him from a cold fish into a free spirit.

From New York Times ● Aug. 17, 2018

The hiyayakko, or chilled tofu, had all the personality of cold fish, while the ohitashi salad was little more than spinach drowning in dashi and bonito flakes that had lost their shimmy.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 10, 2018

Clara, unshakable, led Blanca to a chair and served her a plate of cold fish with caper sauce.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

Related Words

• abstract
• candid
• detached
• disinterested
• sober
• unbiased
• unemotional