Standard Lemma guide

ice-cold

adj · noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈaɪskəʊld/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Very cold.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly, idiomatic

Examples

  • Near-synonyms: stone cold, cold as a well-digger's arse; see also Thesaurus:cold
  • I'm going to put my coat back on — I'm ice-cold again!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cold as ice, icy, freezing cold, freezing, frigid, frosty, stone cold, cold as a well-digger's arse, algid, Arctic, Baltic, boreal, brass monkeys, brumal, chill, chilled, chilly, clay-cold, cold, cold as a mackerel, cold as charity, frore, frozen, gelid, glacial, hiemal, inclement, nesh, nippy, parky, polar, sleety, snowy, taters, wintry

Antonyms: boiling hot, steaming hot, piping hot, baking hot, smoking hot, hot, choleric, heated

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of a person, look, or behavior: without emotion; distant; (sometimes) silently disapproving.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively

Examples

  • I don't know why she gave me an ice-cold look — I had thought that the topic of conversation was totally innocuous.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cold as ice, icy, frigid, stone cold, frosty

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ice, cold: as cold as ice or nearly so (close to a freezing point).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Near-synonyms: stone cold, cold as a well-digger's arse; see also Thesaurus:cold
  • ice-cold beer here
  • It's best to serve this dessert while it's still ice-cold.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cold as ice, icy, freezing cold, freezing, frigid, frosty, stone cold, cold as a well-digger's arse, algid, Arctic, Baltic, boreal, brass monkeys, brumal, chill, chilled, chilly, clay-cold, cold, cold as a mackerel, cold as charity, frore, frozen, gelid, glacial, hiemal, inclement, nesh, nippy, parky, polar, sleety, snowy, taters, wintry

Antonyms: boiling hot, steaming hot, piping hot, baking hot, smoking hot, hot, choleric, heated

Broader terms: cold

4

noun

Meaning 4

A cold serving of beer.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Australia, slang

Examples

  • [...] to sink a few ice colds [...]

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cold one, frosty one

Antonyms: none provided

5

adjective satellite

Meaning 5

as cold as ice

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English *is-cold, from Old English īsċeald; equivalent to ice + cold. Cognate with Saterland Frisian ieskoold (“ice-cold”), West Frisian iiskâld (“ice-cold”), Dutch ijskoud (“ice-cold”), Afrikaans yskoud (“ice-cold”), German Low German ieskold (“ice-cold”), German eiskalt (“ice-cold”), Yiddish אײַזקאַלט (ayzkalt, “ice-cold”), Danish iskold (“ice-cold”), Swedish iskall (“ice-cold”), Norwegian iskald (“ice-cold”), Faroese ísakaldur (“ice-cold”), Icelandic ískaldur (“ice-cold”).

Across languages

Translations

34 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: ле́деностуден (lédenostuden) — as cold as ice
  • Chinese Cantonese: 凍冰冰 /冻冰冰 (dung3 bing1 bing1) — as cold as ice
  • Chinese Mandarin: 冰冷 (bīnglěng) — as cold as ice
  • Czech: ledový — as cold as ice
  • Czech: chladný jako led — as cold as ice
  • Dutch: ijskoud — as cold as ice
  • Finnish: jääkylmä — as cold as ice
  • French: glacé — as cold as ice
  • French: glacial — as cold as ice
  • German: eiskalt — as cold as ice
  • Hungarian: jéghideg — as cold as ice
  • Icelandic: ískaldur — as cold as ice
  • Latin: gelidus — as cold as ice
  • Norwegian: iskald — as cold as ice
  • Old English: isceald — as cold as ice
  • Plautdietsch: iesskolt — as cold as ice
  • Polish: lodowaty — as cold as ice
  • Polish: lodowata — as cold as ice
  • Portuguese: gélido — as cold as ice
  • Portuguese: gelado — as cold as ice
  • Russian: ледяно́й (ledjanój) — as cold as ice
  • Russian: холо́дный как лёд (xolódnyj kak ljod) — as cold as ice
  • Spanish: gélido — as cold as ice
  • Spanish: helado — as cold as ice
  • Swedish: iskall — as cold as ice
  • Turkish: buz gibi — as cold as ice
  • Yiddish: אײַזקאַלט (ayzkalt) — as cold as ice
  • Czech: chladný jako led — distant
  • Finnish: jääkylmä — distant
  • French: glacial — distant
  • Norwegian: iskald — distant
  • Portuguese: gélido — distant
  • Portuguese: frio — distant
  • Swedish: iskall — distant