give someone the cold shoulder

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First recorded use of the expression was in 1816 by Sir Walter Scott in Scots (“The Countess’s dislike didna gang farther at first than just showing o’ the cauld shouther”.) This expression and its German equivalent are mistranslations of dederunt umerum recedentem from the Book of Nehemiah 9:29 from the Vulgate Bible, which actually means "stubbornly they turned their backs on you", which comes from the Septuagint Bible's equivalent ἔδωκαν (édōkan) νῶτον ἀπειθοῦντα. Latin umerus means both "shoulder" and "back".

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Chinese Mandarin: 不理不睬 (bùlǐbùcǎi) — snub
• Chinese Mandarin: 冷落 (lěngluò) — snub
• Chinese Mandarin: 冷淡 (lěngdàn) — snub
• Dutch: iemand links laten liggen — snub
• Finnish: olla ynseä jotakin kohtaan — snub
• Finnish: kohdella jotakin ynseästi — snub
• Finnish: kohdella jotakuta kylmäkiskoisesti — snub
• Finnish: kohdella jotakuta yliolkaisesti — snub
• French: être en froid avec quelqu'un — snub
• French: battre froid à quelqu'un — snub
• German: die kalte Schulter zeigen — snub
• Japanese: 白い目で見る (shiroi me de miru) — snub
• Polish: traktować jak powietrze — snub
• Polish: potraktować jak powietrze — snub
• Russian: оказа́ть холо́дный приём (okazátʹ xolódnyj prijóm) — snub
• Spanish: dar la espalda — snub
• Spanish: hacer el vacío — snub
• Ukrainian: д́ати гарбуза́ (d́aty harbuzá) — snub