Meaning
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- A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
- A sudden penetrating sense of cold, especially one that causes a brief trembling nerve response through the body; the trembling response itself; often associated with illness: fevers and chills, or susceptibility to illness.
- An uncomfortable and numbing sense of fear, dread, anxiety, or alarm, often one that is sudden and usually accompanied by a trembling nerve response resembling the body's response to biting cold.
- An iron mould or portion of a mould, serving to cool rapidly, and so to harden, the surface of molten iron brought in contact with it.
- The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.
- A lack of warmth and cordiality; unfriendliness.
- Calmness; equanimity.
- A sense of style; trendiness; savoir faire.
- A chilling effect; an atmosphere of this.
Synonyms
refrigerate
frozeness
cold weather
be afraid
make cold
low temperature
densener
chilldown
have a slight fever
have fever and ague
refrigerated storage
fit of cold
cooling action
cold shortness
cold quenching
cool-off
be afraid of
cold air
cool-down
shivering fit
become cool
cold-storage
Frequency
Pronounced as (IPA)
/t͡ʃɪl/
Etymology
In summary
From Middle English chele, chile, from Old English ċiele, ċele (“cold; coldness”), from Proto-West Germanic *kali, from Proto-Germanic *kaliz, from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to be cold”). Closely related with Dutch kil. Also akin to cool, cold, which see.
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Notes