COLDNESS

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does coldness mean? 

• COLDNESS (noun)
  The noun COLDNESS has 3 senses:

1. the sensation produced by low temperatures

2. a lack of affection or enthusiasm

3. the absence of heat

  Familiarity information: COLDNESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLDNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The sensation produced by low temperatures

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

cold; coldness

Context example:

the cold helped clear his head

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

temperature (the somatic sensation of cold or heat)

Derivation:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

A lack of affection or enthusiasm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

chilliness; coldness; coolness; frigidity; frigidness; iciness

Context example:

a distressing coldness of tone and manner

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

emotionlessness; unemotionality (absence of emotion)

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

stone (a lack of feeling or expression or movement)

lukewarmness; tepidness (lack of passion, force or animation)

Derivation:

cold (feeling or showing no enthusiasm)

cold (extended meanings; especially of psychological coldness; without human warmth or emotion)

cold (sexually unresponsive)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The absence of heat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

cold; coldness; frigidity; frigidness; low temperature

Context example:

cold is a vasoconstrictor

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

pressor; vasoconstrictive; vasoconstrictor (any agent that causes a narrowing of an opening of a blood vessel: cold or stress or nicotine or epinephrine or norepinephrine or angiotensin or vasopressin or certain drugs; maintains or increases blood pressure)

temperature (the degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment (corresponding to its molecular activity))

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

chill; gelidity; iciness (coldness due to a cold environment)

chilliness; coolness; nip (the property of being moderately cold)

frostiness (coldness as evidenced by frost)

cool (the quality of being at a refreshingly low temperature)

Antonym:

hotness (the presence of heat)

 Context examples 

I was so hurt by her coldness and scepticism, that the tears rose to my eyes.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

To Marianne, indeed, the meeting between Edward and her sister was but a continuation of that unaccountable coldness which she had often observed at Norland in their mutual behaviour.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The coldness of her hand when I touched it, I can feel yet.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Amy felt the shade of coldness in his manner, and said to herself...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Oh! the coldness of a Jane Fairfax!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

His face was bright with the creative glow, though she shivered in the cold room and had been struck by the coldness of his hands at greeting.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Parkinson's Disease Quality of Life Scale (PDQUALIF) I have aching/burning/coldness/numbness in my hand/feet.

(PDQUALIF - Neuropathy in Hands or Feet, NCI Thesaurus)

The queen observed my coldness; and, when the farmer was gone out of the apartment, asked me the reason.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He was depressed by the coldness of these humans who had never been cold before. No response could he draw from them, no help could he get. They did not consider him. They were as dead.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

It usually occurs in males and is characterized by fatigue in the hips, thighs, or calves on exercising, absence of pulsation in the femoral arteries, impotence, and often pallor and coldness of the lower limbs.

(Leriche Syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)