Meaning
Deliberately and ruthlessly, without the heat of anger or any overpowering emotion that might partly excuse the act. It is applied almost exclusively to cruel deeds, above all violence and killing committed in a calm, premeditated state rather than in the moment of passion. Neutral-to-formal register with a strong sinister connotation, now tied closely to reports of premeditated crime. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The phrase comes from pre-modern physiology, in which passion was literally hot: etymonline, summarizing the older belief, notes that blood was thought to rise in temperature with excitement, so blood that was cold at the time of an act signified an act done calmly and without anger's heat - deliberation rather than provocation. Along this line, cold-blooded is recorded from the 1590s of persons lacking emotion, and the application to actions, the line in which the fixed phrase sits, is dated to 1828. The phrase's modern currency owes much to nineteenth-century journalism and legal reporting on premeditated killing, but the hot-and-cold blood model is the documented source of the metaphor, and no earlier or alternative origin is needed.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- cold-blooded
- cold-bloodedly
- in hot blood
Usage Examples
- The court heard that the victim had been shot in cold blood as he begged for his life.
- Cancelling the contract in cold blood, with no warning to the staff, seemed needlessly cruel.
- Historians still debate whether the executions were carried out in cold blood or amid the chaos of the retreat.