CHILLY (chillier, chilliest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: chillier    , chilliest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does chilly mean? 

• CHILLY (noun)
  The noun CHILLY has 1 sense:

1. very hot and finely tapering pepper of special pungency

  Familiarity information: CHILLY used as a noun is very rare.

• CHILLY (adjective)
  The adjective CHILLY has 3 senses:

1. not characterized by emotion

2. appreciably or disagreeably cold

3. lacking warmth of feeling

  Familiarity information: CHILLY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHILLY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very hot and finely tapering pepper of special pungency

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

chile; chili; chili pepper; chilli; chilly

Hypernyms ("chilly" is a kind of...):

hot pepper (any of various pungent capsicum fruits)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chilly"):

jalapeno; jalapeno pepper (hot green or red pepper of southwestern United States and Mexico)

cayenne; cayenne pepper (a long and often twisted hot red pepper)

Holonyms ("chilly" is a part of...):

Capsicum annuum longum; cayenne; cayenne pepper; chili pepper; chilli pepper; jalapeno; long pepper (plant bearing very hot and finely tapering long peppers; usually red)

Holonyms ("chilly" is a substance of...):

chili powder (powder made of ground chili peppers mixed with e.g. cumin and garlic and oregano)

• CHILLY (adjective)

Comparative: chillier   
Superlative: chilliest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not characterized by emotion

Context example:

a female form in marble--a chilly but ideal medium for depicting abstract virtues

Similar:

unemotional (unsusceptible to or destitute of or showing no emotion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Appreciably or disagreeably cold

Synonyms:

chilly; parky

Similar:

cold (having a low or inadequate temperature or feeling a sensation of coldness or having been made cold by e.g. ice or refrigeration)

Derivation:

chill (coldness due to a cold environment)

chilliness (the property of being moderately cold)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lacking warmth of feeling

Context example:

a chilly greeting

Similar:

unfriendly (not disposed to friendship or friendliness)

 Context examples 

It has a chilly temperature between minus 54 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 48 to minus 13 degrees Celsius).

(A cold, close neighbor of the Sun, NASA)

"In what order you keep these rooms, Mrs. Fairfax!" said I. "No dust, no canvas coverings: except that the air feels chilly, one would think they were inhabited daily."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Miss Murdstone gave me her chilly finger-nails, and sat severely rigid.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

We were all seated round the fire by this time, for the evening had turned chilly.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jo was very busy in the garret, for the October days began to grow chilly, and the afternoons were short.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And now, behold, with the first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink away and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm firesides.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Thus she went on and on, and journeyed till she came to the world’s end; then she came to the sun, but the sun looked much too hot and fiery; so she ran away quickly to the moon, but the moon was cold and chilly, and said, I smell flesh and blood this way! so she took herself away in a hurry and came to the stars, and the stars were friendly and kind to her, and each star sat upon his own little stool; but the morning star rose up and gave her a little piece of wood, and said, If you have not this little piece of wood, you cannot unlock the castle that stands on the glass-mountain, and there your brothers live.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Scientists closely examined hundreds of cold, dark craters called cold traps — at less than minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit (110 Kelvin), they are so chilly that very little of the ice turns into vapor in the course of a billion years.

(Where is the Ice on Ceres?, NASA)

You are chilly.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It was the first of June; yet the morning was overcast and chilly: rain beat fast on my casement.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)