chill

• POS: Adjective, Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

chill, n. [AS. cele, cyle, from the same root as celan, calan, to be cold; akin to D. kil cold, coldness, Sw. kyla to chill, and E. cool. See Cold, and cf. Cool.].

•  A moderate but disagreeable degree of cold; a disagreeable sensation of coolness, accompanied with shivering.  W. Irving.  [1913 Webster]
•  A sensation of cold with convulsive shaking of the body, pinched face, pale skin, and blue lips, caused by undue cooling of the body or by nervous excitement, or forming the precursor of some constitutional disturbance, as of a fever.  [1913 Webster]
•  A check to enthusiasm or warmth of feeling; discouragement; as, a chill comes over an assembly.  [1913 Webster]
•  An iron mold or portion of a mold, serving to cool rapidly, and so to harden, the surface of molten iron brought in contact with it.  Raymond.  [1913 Webster]
•  The hardened part of a casting, as the tread of a car wheel.  Knight.  [1913 Webster]

Chill and fever, fever and ague.

chill, a. 

•  Moderately cold; tending to cause shivering; chilly; raw.  [1913 Webster]

  "Noisome winds, and blasting vapors chill."  [1913 Webster]
•  Affected by cold.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  Characterized by coolness of manner, feeling, etc.; lacking enthusiasm or warmth; formal; distant; as, a chill reception.  [1913 Webster]
•  Discouraging; depressing; dispiriting.  [1913 Webster]

chill, v. t. 

•  To strike with a chill; to make chilly; to cause to shiver; to affect with cold.  [1913 Webster]

  "When winter chilled the day."  [1913 Webster]
•  To check enthusiasm or warmth of feeling of; to depress; to discourage.  [1913 Webster]

  "Every thought on God chills the gayety of his spirits."  [1913 Webster]
•  To produce, by sudden cooling, a change of crystallization at or near the surface of, so as to increase the hardness; said of cast iron.  [1913 Webster]

chill, v. i. 

 To become surface-hardened by sudden cooling while solidifying; as, some kinds of cast iron chill to a greater depth than others.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

chill, n., v., & adj.
--n.
1 a an unpleasant cold sensation; lowered body temperature. b a feverish cold (catch a chill).
2 unpleasant coldness (of air, water, etc.).
3 a a depressing influence (cast a chill over). b a feeling of fear or dread accompanied by coldness.
4 coldness of manner.
--v.
1 tr. & intr. make or become cold.
2 tr. depress, dispirit.
3 tr. cool (food or drink); preserve by cooling.
4 tr. harden (molten metal) by contact with cold material.
--adj. literary chilly.

Idiom

take the chill off warm slightly.

Derivative

chiller n. chillingly adv. chillness n. chillsome adj. literary.

Etymology

OE cele, ciele, etc.: in mod. use the verb is the oldest (ME), and is of obscure orig.

THESAURUS

chill

Laodiceanism, abscess, absolute zero, abstracted, ache, aching, affectless, ague, air-condition, air-cool, algidity, aloof, aloofness, anemia, anesthesia, anesthetized, ankylosis, anoxia, apnea, arctic, asphyxiation, asthma, ataxia, atrophy, autism, autistic, backache, be cold, benumb, benumbed, bite, bitterness, bleakness, bleeding, blennorhea, blunt, bracing, briskness, cachexia, cachexy, catatonia, catatonic, chatter, chilblains, chilliness, chilling, chills, chilly, cold, cold as charity, cold blood, cold creeps, cold heart, cold shivers, cold water, cold-blooded, coldhearted, coldheartedness, coldness, colic, constipation, convulsion, cool, coolish, coolness, coolth, coryza, coughing, creeps, crispness, cryogenics, cryology, cryopathy, cut, cyanosis, damp, dampen, damper, deadpan, decrease in temperature, deflect, deject, demoralize, depress, detachment, deter, determent, deterrent, diarrhea, didder, disaccordant, disaffect, disaffinity, discourage, discouragement, dishearten, disincline, disinterest, disinterested, disparage, dispassion, dispassionate, dispassionateness, dispirit, distance, distant, distract, distress, dither, dithers, divert, dizziness, dropsy, drugged, duck bumps, dull, dullness, dysentery, dyspepsia, dyspnea, edema, emaciation, emotional deadness, emotionally dead, emotionless, emotionlessness, enmity, fainting, fatigue, fervorlessness, fever, fibrillation, flu, flux, formal, freeze, freeze to death, freezing, freezing point, fresh, freshen, freshness, frigid, frigidity, frost, frostbite, frosted, frostiness, frosty, frozen, gelid, gelidity, glacial, go through, goose bumps, goose pimples, gooseflesh, grow cold, growth, halfheartedness, have a chill, have goose pimples, heartless, heartlessness, hemorrhage, high blood pressure, horripilate, horripilation, hostility, hydrops, hypertension, hypotension, ice, ice-cool, iciness, icterus, icy, immovability, immovable, impassibility, impassive, impassiveness, impassivity, inaccessibility, inclemency, incompatibility, incompatible, incompatibleness, indifference, indifferent, indifferentism, indifferentness, indigestion, indispose, inexcitability, inexcitable, inflammation, influenza, infrigidate, inhospitable, inhospitality, inimical, inimicality, insensitive, insipidity, insomnia, insusceptible, intense cold, invigorating, itching, jaundice, keenness, kibe, la grippe, labored breathing, lack of affect, lack of feeling, lack of touch, lose heat, low blood pressure, low temperature, lukewarmness, lumbago, marasmus, nasal discharge, nausea, necrosis, neuterness, neutrality, neutralness, nip, nippiness, nippy, nonemotional, numb, numbed, numbing, objective, objectivity, obtuse, obtuseness, offishness, out of touch, pain, paralysis, passionless, passionlessness, penetrate, penetrating, perfunctoriness, perish with cold, personal conflict, pierce, poker face, polar, pruritus, put off, quake, quench, quiver, rash, raw, rawness, refresh, refrigerate, remoteness, repel, reserved, rheum, rigor, sclerosis, seizure, self-absorbed, self-absorption, severity, shake, sharp air, sharpness, shiver, shivering, shivers, shock, shudder, skin eruption, sneezing, solitary, sore, soulless, soullessness, spasm, spiritless, spiritlessness, standoffish, standoffishness, stimulating, straight face, strain, strained, tabes, tachycardia, temperate, tense, tension, tepidness, the sniffles, tremble, tumor, turn aside, turn away, turn from, turn off, unaffectionate, unamiability, unamiable, unamicable, unapproachability, uncompanionable, uncordial, uncordiality, unemotional, unemotionalism, unexcitability, unfeeling, unfeelingness, unfriendliness, unfriendly, ungenial, ungeniality, unharmonious, unimpassioned, unimpressibility, unimpressionable, unimpressionableness, uninterested, unloving, unpassionate, unpassionateness, unresponding, unresponsive, unresponsiveness, unsociability, unsociable, unsusceptibility, unsusceptible, unsympathetic, unsympatheticness, untouchability, untouchable, upset stomach, vapidity, ventilate, vertigo, vomiting, wasting, wean from, wet blanket, wintry, withdrawal, withdrawn, withdrawnness, zeallessness

ROGET THESAURUS

chill

Dissuasion

VB dissuade, dehort, cry out against, remonstrate, expostulate, warn, contraindicate, disincline, indispose, shake, stagger, dispirit, discourage, dishearten, deter, repress, hold back, keep back, render averse, repel, turn aside, wean from, act as a drag, throw cold water on, damp, cool, chill, blunt, calm, quiet, quench, deprecate, disenchant, disillusion, deflate, take down a peg, pop one's balloon, prick one's balloon, burst one's bubble, disabuse (correction).

Cold

N cold, coldness, frigidity, inclemency, fresco, winter, depth of winter, hard winter, Siberia, Nova Zembla, wind- chill factor, ice, snow, snowflake, snow crystal, snow drift, sleet, hail, hailstone, rime, frost, hoar frost, white frost, hard frost, sharp frost, barf, glaze, lolly, icicle, thick-ribbed ice, fall of snow, heavy fall, iceberg, icefloe, floe berg, glacier, nev_ee, serac, pruina, freezing mixture, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, chilliness, chill, shivering, goose skin, horripilation, rigor, chattering of teeth, numbness, frostbite, cold, cool, chill, chilly, icy, gelid, frigid, algid, fresh, keen, bleak, raw, inclement, bitter, biting, niveous, cutting, nipping, piercing, pinching, clay-cold, starved, chilled to the bone, shivering, aguish, transi de froid, frostbitten, frost-bound, frost-nipped, cold as a stone, cold as marble, cold as lead, cold as iron, cold as a frog, cold as charity, cold as Christmas, cool as a cucumber, cool as custard, icy, glacial, frosty, freezing, pruinose, wintry, brumal, hibernal, boreal, arctic, Siberian, hyemal, hyperborean, hyperboreal, icebound, frozen out, unwarmed, unthawed, lukewarm, tepid, isocheimal, isocheimenal, isocheimic, frozen, numb, frost-bitten, coldly, bitterly, pierre fendre, cold, coldness, frigidity, inclemency, fresco, winter, depth of winter, hard winter, Siberia, Nova Zembla, wind- chill factor, ice, snow, snowflake, snow crystal, snow drift, sleet, hail, hailstone, rime, frost, hoar frost, white frost, hard frost, sharp frost, barf, glaze, lolly, icicle, thick-ribbed ice, fall of snow, heavy fall, iceberg, icefloe, floe berg, glacier, nev_ee, serac, pruina, freezing mixture, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, chilliness, chill, shivering, goose skin, horripilation, rigor, chattering of teeth, numbness, frostbite, cold, cool, chill, chilly, icy, gelid, frigid, algid, fresh, keen, bleak, raw, inclement, bitter, biting, niveous, cutting, nipping, piercing, pinching, clay-cold, starved, chilled to the bone, shivering, aguish, transi de froid, frostbitten, frost-bound, frost-nipped, cold as a stone, cold as marble, cold as lead, cold as iron, cold as a frog, cold as charity, cold as Christmas, cool as a cucumber, cool as custard, icy, glacial, frosty, freezing, pruinose, wintry, brumal, hibernal, boreal, arctic, Siberian, hyemal, hyperborean, hyperboreal, icebound, frozen out, unwarmed, unthawed, lukewarm, tepid, isocheimal, isocheimenal, isocheimic, frozen, numb, frost-bitten, coldly, bitterly, pierre fendre.

Refrigeration

VB cool, fan, refrigerate, refresh, ice, congeal, freeze, glaciate, benumb, starve, pinch, chill, petrify, chill to the marrow, regelate, nip, cut, pierce, bite, make one's teeth chatter, damp, slack quench, put out, stamp out, extinguish, go out, burn out (incombustibility).