cold

catch a cold (or catch cold)

1 become infected with a cold.

2 encounter trouble or difficulties, especially financial ones.

❷ 2001 Financial Times Most observers expect house prices to rise…depending on whether the UK economy continues to grow smoothly or whether it catches a cold from the US.

as cold as charity very cold.

cold comfort poor or inadequate consolation.

☞ This expression, together with the previous idiom, reflects a traditional view that charity is often given in a perfunctory or uncaring way. The words cold (as the opposite of 'encouraging') and comfort have been associated since the early 14th century, but perhaps the phrase is most memorably linked for modern readers with the title of Stella Gibbons's 1933 parody of sentimental novels of rural life, Cold Comfort Farm.

cold feet loss of nerve or confidence.

come (or bring) in from the cold gain (or grant) acceptance. informal

2013Telegraph The French, who were not fully integrated into the Nato military, were always outside the central group, until President Sarkozy brought them in from the cold a few years ago.

in the cold light of day when you have had time to consider a situation objectively.

the cold shoulder a show of intentional unfriendliness; rejection.

☞ The underlying allusion is probably to the notion of 'coldly' (i.e. unfeelingly) partially turning your back on someone. The link with the idea of (inhospitably) offering someone a cold roast shoulder of meat to eat remains, despite occasional 19th-century references to a cold shoulder of mutton in this sense, unsubstantiated. The verb cold-shoulder, meaning 'reject or be deliberately unfriendly', comes from the phrase.

cold steel weapons such as swords and knives collectively.

in a cold sweat: seesweat.

go cold turkey suddenly and completely stop taking drugs.

☞ The image is of one of the possible unpleasant side effects of this, involving bouts of shivering and sweating that cause goose flesh or goose pimples, a bumpy condition of the skin which resembles the flesh of a dead plucked turkey.

go hot and cold: seehot.

have someone cold have someone at your mercy. US informal

1988Rodney HallKisses of the Enemy He waited in his office for news of violence, knowing that then he would have the troublemakers cold.

in cold blood without feeling or mercy; ruthlessly.

☞ According to medieval physiology blood was naturally hot, and so this phrase refers to an unnatural state in which someone can carry out a (hot-blooded) deed of passion or violence without the normal heating of the blood. Compare with make your blood curdle and make your blood run cold (atblood).

leave someone cold fail to interest or excite someone.

1993James MerrilA Different Person I might have waxed sentimental over the ruins of Catullus's garçonnière but places that 'breathe History' have always left me cold.

left out in the cold ignored; neglected.

make your blood run cold: seeblood.

out cold completely unconscious.

pour (or throw) cold water on be discouraging or negative about a plan or suggestion.

2013New Zealand Herald A former security consultant pours cold water on New Zealand being under threat. 'Anyone who is willing to talk to media about such targeted attacks would not have been involved in dealing with them,' he says.