chill
/tʃɪl
/noun
1An unpleasant feeling of coldness in the atmosphere, one’s surroundings, or the body: there was a chill in the air the draughty chill of the castle heat exhaustion symptoms include nausea, chills, dizziness and dehydration...
- He sometimes feels a chill in the atmosphere at Xuhui High school, where he works as a librarian and part-time calligraphy teacher.
- The chill of her surroundings brought the rest of her body to awareness.
- Isabelle kneels down at Martin's gravestone, the bracing night air sending a chill through her body.
Synonyms
coldness, chilliness, coolness, iciness, crispness, rawness, bitterness, nip, bite, sting, sharpness, keenness, harshness, wintriness, frigidity
informal nippiness
rare gelidity
1.1A feverish cold: we had better return before you catch a chill he was confined to bed with a severe chill...
- You'll end up with a chill, and could catch pneumonia.
- On the return trip, Mary caught a chill and the subsequent fever nearly killed her.
- Anyway, a few years ago, he caught a chill and it turned into pneumonia; I buried him behind the cabin and came here.
Synonyms
cold, dose of flu, dose of influenza, respiratory infection, viral infection, virus
archaic grippe
1.2A coldness of manner: the chill in relations between France and its former colony...
- As he says this, a sudden chill descends on Penelope Wilton's hitherto friendly Sonya as if he has trodden on her soul.
- Brian felt it the moment he entered the city limits - a sudden primeval chill, an instinctive animal watchfulness.
- Both the leaders are certainly hoping that it warms up that chill between the countries.
Synonyms
unfriendliness, lack of understanding, lack of sympathy, lack of warmth, chilliness, coldness, coolness, frigidity, aloofness, distance, remoteness, unresponsiveness
1.3A depressing influence: his statements have cast a chill over this whole country...
- This remark, delivered in an offhand fashion, suddenly cast a rather sinister chill over the whole proceedings.
- Besides, the ban on federal funding for most embryonic cell research has put a chill on the whole field.
1.4A sudden and powerful feeling of fear: a chill ran down my spine...
- And deep inside, a chill of fear ran down the bones of her spine.
- A chill of fear swept over her and goosebumps sprang over her arms.
- A chill of fear runs down my spine as I see a small hint of anger upon Matt's face, even though he is trying to keep it emotionless.
2A metal mould, often cooled, designed to ensure rapid or even cooling of metal during casting.Thus, dry sand cores often are used in green sand molds, and metal chills can be used in sand molds to accelerate local cooling.
verb [with object]
1Make (someone) cold: they were chilled by a sudden wind...
- By the time I got there I was already chilled to the bone and was starting to have a few doubts as to whether I had bitten of more than I could chew.
- He tucked the covers around her tightly, but she was chilled to the bone.
- It seemed as though I was chilled to the bone even though I should have been very warm.
1.1Cool (food or drink), typically in a refrigerator: chill the soup slightly before serving...
- If you chill the foods once bacteria have proliferated, they will not suddenly disappear.
- For a picnic, chill the strawberries and cream separately, take them along in a cool box, and assemble them on site.
- The Romans used to chill perishable foods by packing them in snow brought from the Alps, using straw to insulate the snow and keep it from melting both on the journey and in use.
Synonyms
make cold, make colder, cool, cool down, cool off;
refrigerate, freeze, quick-freeze, deep-freeze, ice
1.2 [no object] (Of food or drink) be cooled: they had some champagne chilling in the fridge...
- And a bowl of juicy ripe fruit was placed on the table and a bottle of sparkling wine was chilling nicely in the silver cooler.
- A half bottle of Beaumes de Venise, which incidentally, is my weakness, was chilling in the fridge.
- The champagne is already chilling in the fridge.
1.3 Metallurgy another term for chill-cast.
2Horrify or frighten (someone): the city was chilled by the violence (as adjective chilling) a chilling account of the prisoners' fate...
- A sudden stiff breeze came, blowing back his thick, dark-brown hair, and chilling him with fright.
- It chilled her, even frightened her, but she soon awoke to an even more startling reality than before: Kojiro was not kidding.
- Defiantly magical During the flash, she also saw something that terrified her and chilled her to the bone.
3 [no object] (also chill out) informal Calm down and relax: they like to get home, have a bath, and chill out...
- The Federal became both my liming spot (as in chilling out, relaxing), and my evening school.
- I never relaxed, and chilled out, and did the things I enjoyed doing.
- Hawke's Bay's junior world rowing champion Emma Twigg could be excused if she wanted to chill out and relax this week in her first visit home since capturing gold.
3.1Pass time idly with other people: she always seems to be just chilling with friends...
- So other than my heartbreak during the week, I am now looking forward to heading for sunny Spain with my friend and just chilling out for two weeks, but don't worry I already have plenty of sunblock!
- It's quite an experience for some, but noodle bar owners know that there are some who prefer a great atmosphere to eat their noodles in while chilling out with friends.
- Whether you're spending the holidays with your family or chilling out with your friends, you'll want to look great.
adjective
1Chilly: the chill grey dawn figurative the chill winds of public censure...
- With the return of grey skies and chill winds, what better than a concert promising a hint of warmer climes?
- On a bleak, grey afternoon with a chill wind coming from the North Sea barely 100 yards away, Stanley took control of the game early on and the home side rarely threatened.
- A crisp, chill wind bit at our exposed faces as we walked along designated walkways to the terminal; despite the cold, I found an extra vigour in my step.
Synonyms
cold, chilly, cool, crisp, fresh, brisk;
bleak, wintry, snowy, frosty, icy, ice-cold, icy-cold, glacial, polar, arctic, raw, sharp, bitter, bitterly cold, biting, piercing, penetrating, numbing, freezing, frigid
informal nippy
British informal parky
rare gelid, brumal
2North American informal Very relaxed or easy-going: in general, I am a pretty chill guy the island is really chill and laid-back...
- What they need is more unstructured time, more 'chill time.'
- At just before seven minutes in, the band settles into a chill mid-tempo groove conducive to minor head-nodding.
- More assertive than ambient, but more chill than club music.
Phrases
chill someone's blood
take the chill off
Derivatives
chillness
/ noun ...- However, the bitter chillness notwithstanding, thousands of people, particularly children, gathered in the main Charing Cross and Commercial road areas and cheered.
- A few stayed on, amid the overwhelming chillness, in the hope that sunshine would finally pierce through those dense layers of cloud.
- she chuckled and dipped her hands into the water, splashing it into her face and delighting in the chillness of it.
chillsome
- Always as uplifting as it is chillsome, the combination of Kate Ellis' airy cello, Thomas Haugh's tenderness on the tubs and Crowley's divine leadership never fails to hit the mark.
- It was a chillsome late autumn, especially down by the lagoon where the winds blew unchecked, and a fire had been set in the fireplace.
- Texas had, perchance, 30,000 Anglo-American inhabitants in the chillsome spring of 1836, primarily due to the Colonies of Stephen F. Austin and Green DeWitt.
Origin
Old English cele, ciele 'cold, coldness', of Germanic origin; related to cold.