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someone's blood runs cold. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
someone's blood runs cold, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
someone's blood runs cold in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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someone's blood runs cold, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Pronunciation
Phrase
one's blood runs cold
- (literal) One feels a physical shock upon realizing a direct threat to one's life, similar to the loss of blood in the brain. It affects the entire body for a few minutes, but does not cause the person to lose consciousness.
- (idiomatic) One experiences a visceral feeling of fear, horror, dread, or strong foreboding.
1838, Charles Dickens, chapter 18, in Oliver Twist:Little Oliver's blood ran cold, as he listened to the Jew's words, and imperfectly comprehended the dark threats conveyed in them.
1891, H. Rider Haggard, chapter 13, in Nada the Lily:[M]y blood ran cold and my heart turned to water, for there, before the cave, rolled wolves, many and great.
1908, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 9, in The Magician:Her blood ran cold, and her heart seemed pressed in an iron vice.
2004 January 12, Jeffrey Ressner, “Sundances with Wolves”, in Time, archived from the original on 30 June 2013:His "blood runs cold" imagining the wrath of Weinstein.
1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter 20, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. , volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, , →OCLC:Here, he read of dreadful crimes that made the blood run cold.
1914, Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Man on the Train:"It just makes my blood run cold to read about it. And to think that the man who did it is still around the country somewhere—plotting other murders."
Translations
One experiences a visceral feeling of fear, horror, dread, or strong forboding
See also