COLD-BLOODED

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cold-blooded mean? 

• COLD-BLOODED (adjective)
  The adjective COLD-BLOODED has 2 senses:

1. without compunction or human feeling

2. having cold blood (in animals whose body temperature is not internally regulated)

  Familiarity information: COLD-BLOODED used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLD-BLOODED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Without compunction or human feeling

Synonyms:

cold; cold-blooded; inhuman; insensate

Context example:

insensate destruction

Similar:

inhumane (lacking and reflecting lack of pity or compassion)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having cold blood (in animals whose body temperature is not internally regulated)

Similar:

ectothermic; heterothermic; poikilothermic; poikilothermous (of animals except birds and mammals; having body temperature that varies with the environment)

Domain category:

zoological science; zoology (the branch of biology that studies animals)

Antonym:

warm-blooded (having warm blood (in animals whose body temperature is internally regulated))

 Context examples 

It is a very deeply planned and cold-blooded murder.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And their refusals had been cold-blooded, automatic, stereotyped.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was a cold-blooded exhibition of marksmanship.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“There’s a cold-blooded scoundrel!” said Holmes, laughing, as he threw himself down into his chair once more.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Henry Crawford, ruined by early independence and bad domestic example, indulged in the freaks of a cold-blooded vanity a little too long.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Mr Elliot is a man without heart or conscience; a designing, wary, cold-blooded being, who thinks only of himself; whom for his own interest or ease, would be guilty of any cruelty, or any treachery, that could be perpetrated without risk of his general character.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

White sharks, which are warm-blooded animals, used a combination of warm- and cold-water eddies to locate food in the twilight zone, while blue sharks — a cold-blooded species — relied exclusively on warm-water eddies.

(Blue sharks use ocean eddies as fast-tracks to food, National Science Foundation)

Norton was sensitive and excitable, though he never lost his head, while Kreis and Hamilton were like a pair of cold-blooded savages, seeking out tender places to prod and poke.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Brutality had followed brutality, and flaming passions and cold-blooded cruelty had driven men to seek one another’s lives, and to strive to hurt, and maim, and destroy.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was nothing less than robbery, he concluded—a cold-blooded steal; while he starved, he was pilfered of his merchandise, of his goods, the sale of which was the sole way of getting bread to eat.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)