chill (one) to the bone

chill (one) to the bone

1. To make or be very cold. In this usage, a pronoun does not have to be used between "chill" and "to." After shoveling snow for hours, I am just chilled to the bone. The wind from the mountain chilled us to the bone.
2. To cause one to be very scared. In this usage, a pronoun is usually used between "chill" and "to." The sight of blood just chills me to the bone.
See also: bone, chill

chilled to the bone

Of a person, very cold. After shoveling snow for hours, I am just chilled to the bone.
See also: bone, chill
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*chilled to the bone

Fig. very cold. (*Typically: be ~; get ~.) I got chilled to the bone in that snowstorm. The children were chilled to the bone from their swim in the ocean.
See also: bone, chill
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

chilled to the bone

Also, chilled to the marrow. Extremely or bitterly cold, as in After skiing in the wind for five hours straight, I was chilled to the bone. These hyperboles replaced the earlier idea of one's blood freezing and are more picturesque than the current synonym frozen.
See also: bone, chill
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

chill somebody to the ˈbone/ˈmarrow

frighten somebody very much: His threat chilled her to the bone.
Marrow is a soft substance that fills the hollow parts of bones.
See also: bone, chill, marrow, somebody
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

chilled to the bone

Very cold indeed. This hyperbole for feeling cold replaces the older idea of one’s blood freezing. Thus Shakespeare wrote of Pericles, after he was shipwrecked, “A man throng’d up with chill; my veins are cold” (Pericles, 2.1). This thought persisted well into the nineteenth century, appearing in poems by Tennyson (“Till her blood was frozen slowly,” in “The Lady of Shalott”) and Lawrence Binyon (“In the terrible hour of the dawn, when the veins are cold,” in Edith Cavell).
See also: bone, chill
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • at one's leisure
  • not do (someone or oneself) any favors
  • orient
  • orient to
  • orient to (something)
  • spiff up
  • spiffed up
  • third person
  • (Is) this taken?
  • associate oneself with