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View synonyms for cold fish

cold fish

noun

, Informal.
  1. a person who is very reserved or aloof in manner or who lacks normal cordiality, sympathy, or other feeling.


cold fish

noun

  1. an unemotional and unfriendly person
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of cold fish1

First recorded in 1940–45
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Idioms and Phrases

A hard-hearted, unfeeling individual, one who shows no emotion, as in Not even the eulogy moved him; he's a real cold fish . This expression was used by Shakespeare in The Winter's Tale (4:4): “It was thought she was a woman, and was turn'd into a cold fish.” However, it came into wider use only in the first half of the 1900s.
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Example Sentences

The two seamen made a good meal of some cold fish and bread and the bottle of wine, most of which latter going down Dan's throat.

Take any sort of cold fish, bone it, and then chop it with the remains of a cold omelet, and some mushrooms if you have them.

It was cold fish and sea-sodden hardtack till they saw land again—if they ever did.

Into this pour creamed fish made by mixing equal proportions of left-over cold fish and white sauce.

To possess these qualities opens one to the suspicion of being a cold fish.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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cold feet, getcold frame