cold water
[see cold a. 2.]
a. Water at its natural temperature, which is always many degrees below that of the human body, as opposed to warm or hot water. Often referred to as the simplest and most typical beverage; also as used for washing or bathing, or in hydropathy.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. x. 42 Cælc wætres caldes. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. ibid., Anne drinc cealdes wæteres. c 1160 Hatton Gosp. ibid., ænne drinc chealdes wæteres. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 152 Þenne suppe bihoued þe coge of þe colde water, & þenne þe cry ryses. 1611 Bible Prov. xxv. 25 As cold waters to a thirstie soule: so is good newes from a farre countrey. 1798 Duncan Annals Med. III. 21 Dr. Currie encouraged him to drink largely of cold water and lemonade. 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 397 Historical Sketch of the Use of the Affusion of Cold Water. 1843 Abdy Water Cure 106 How the sudden application of cold water acts on the body. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Race Wks. (Bohn) II. 31 The extremes of poverty and ascetic penance, it would seem, never reach cold water in England. |
† b. Formerly, the water of baptism; the font.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 309 Kyng Clodoneus was his godfader and took hym of þe cold water [de fonte suscepit]. Ibid. VI. 451 Edmond feng Anlaf of þe colde water. |
c. to throw cold water on (alluding to the shock thus given to the naked body): to heap discouragement on, disparage, ‘damp’. Similarly, to pour cold water upon.
| 1808 Trial Gen. Whitelocke (ed. Mottley) II. 442 He had stated that I was throwing cold water on everything he did. 1883 I. L. Bishop in Leisure Hour 86/2 Who threw cold water on the idea. 1893 Times 26 Apr. 9/4 He was obliged to pour cold water very plentifully upon the zeal of his Irish friends. 1950 A. Christie Murder is Announced viii. 96, I understand she rather poured cold water on that idea? |
d. attrib., as in cold water physician; esp. with reference to hydropathy, as cold water cure, cold water treatment, etc.; or (sportively) to the Total Abstinence movement, as cold water army, etc. Also with reference to a dwelling without central heating (U.S.).
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 243 [Asclepiades] brought vp first the allowing of cold water..to sick persons; and took pleasure to be called the Cold-water Physitian. 1807 Med. Jrnl. XVII. 323 The cold-water treatment has in our hands been very successful. 1878 tr. Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XIII. 173 The cold-water cure has been much and advantageously employed in diseases of the cord. 1942 M. McCarthy Company she Keeps (1943) v. 187 A cold-water flat in an old-law tenement. 1954 W. Faulkner Fable (1955) 334 A walk-up, cold-water Brooklyn tenement. 1964 W. Markfield To Early Grave (1965) ii. 31 He found himself a cold-water flat near the Village. |
Hence cold-ˈwaterish a.
| 1870 Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 152 That somewhat cold-waterish region. |