cool off
Idioms-
see cool down .
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Also, . Calm down, become less ardent, angry, or agitated, as in We can't discuss it until you've cooled off . The verb cool alone has been used in this sense since approximately a.d. 1000; off and down were added in the late 1800s, and Davy Crockett's Almanac (1836) had: “Resting a while, just long enough to cool out a little.”
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Also, cool out . Kill someone, as in They threatened to cool off his brother . [ Slang ; first half of 1800s] Also see cool out , def. 2.
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.
The RBA has already acted to cool off inflation with interest rate increases in February and March, saying it will do what is needed to get it lower.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026
You do heat up and you do sweat, and I just take off my coat to cool off and always keep my hat and Spyder gloves to keep my hands warm.
From Slate • Feb. 24, 2026
"I view today's decline as a correction to cool off an overheated market -- a phase of adjustment," Chung Hae-chang, analyst at Daishin Securities, told AFP.
From Barron's • Nov. 5, 2025
"I'm only going out for a swim in the lake in the forest after 18:00, when the weather has started to cool off," he says.
From BBC • Jul. 24, 2025
Dehydration left them so prone to overheating, even in mild weather, that their valets prepared huge bins of ice cubes into which they could flop to cool off.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
