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

“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

If being a cold fish is, as the cliché would have it, a British quality, then the series is very British indeed.

From New York Times • Apr. 21, 2022

The buffet table included pickled salads, pâté, cold fish wraps and twarog — something like a white farmer cheese — most of which we also piled on our plates.

From Washington Post • Oct. 7, 2021

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

From Seattle Times • Aug. 21, 2020

“Fine, but what should I do with Ess?” asked Jinny, swallowing a mouthful of cold fish.

From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder

Related Words

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