▪ I. cool, a.
(kuːl)
Forms: 1 cól, 3–5 cole, 4 coul, 6 Sc. cuill, 4–7 coole, 3, 7– cool.
[OE. cól:—OTeut. *kôlu-z, f. ablaut stem of kal- = L. gel- cold: see note under etymology of cold. Passage from the -u into the -jo declension (*kôljo-z) gave OHG. chuoli, MHG. küele, G. kühl cool.]
1. a. Moderately cold; said of a temperature which, in contrast with heat, is cold enough to be agreeable and refreshing, or, in contrast with cold, is not so low as to be positively disagreeable or painful.
In earlier use sometimes app. not distinguished from cold.
| a 1000 Boeth. Metr. v. 26 Swa oft æsprinȝe utawealleð of clife harum col and hlutor. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 324 Hrer mid sticcan oþ þæt hit col sie. c 1275 Pains of Hell 82 in O.E. Misc. 149 Þat fule pool Þat euer is hot and neuer cool. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 452 Al schet in a schaȝe þat schaded ful cole. c 1490 Promp. Parv. 87 (MS. K) Cole or sumwhat colde. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 202 In mid winter quhen that the wedder is cuill. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 89 Vnder the coole shade of a Siccamore. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 216 With spreading Planes he made a cool Retreat. 1750 Gray Elegy xix, Along the cool sequester'd vale of life. 1776 Trial Nundocomar 32/2 He was then in a cool sweat, with a low pulse. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxv. 177 We were in the cool shadow of the mountain. 1881 Rossetti Song & Music, O leave your hand where it lies cool Upon the eyes whose lids are hot. |
b. fig.
| 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iii. iii. 30 The coole and temperate Wind of Grace. 1602 ― Ham. iii. iv. 124 Vpon the heate and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle coole patience. 1738 Wesley Come Holy Spirit ii, Come, Thou our Passion's cool Allay. 1767 W. Hanbury Charities Ch. Langton 108 The country, seeing the cool water thrown on it [a scheme]. |
c. Producing a sensation of coolness; not admitting or retaining heat; as ‘a cool dress’. d. Med. Said of medicine, treatment, etc. that lowers the temperature of the blood; cooling.
| 1615 Latham Falconry (1633) 100 You must..coole it [the heat of the hawk's stomach] with some coole thing that is meet for it. 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 208 Assist them with Emulsions of the cooler seeds..as Melons, Cucumbers. 1793 Beddoes Catarrh 151 The cool treatment of small pox. |
2. transf. a. Applied to a sensation of the organs of taste analogous to that of actual coolness; or to anything which produces this sensation.
| 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 252 Nitrites have properties common to nitrates; such as a cool taste. |
b. Hunting. Of a scent: Faint, weak. Cf. cold a. 12.
| 1647 N. Bacon Laws Eng. i. lxvii. (1739) 158 Though..they lost ground, and hunted upon a cool scent. |
c. Of colours: Between ‘warm’ and ‘cold’; containing low-toned red or yellow; as, ‘cool green’. † d. ? Having little vitality or force. Obs.
| 1699 Marvell Corr. Wks. 1872–5 II. 282 I reckon they have but a coole patent of it, and I suppose should they bring it into Parliament it will prove not only impossible there but ridiculous. |
† 3. fig. a. Chilled, depressed. Obs. Cf. cold a. 9.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 9255 Þen comford he caght in his cole hert. |
† b. Chilling, comfortless. Obs. Cf. cold a. 10.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 131 ‘Wat segge ȝe maistres’, quod Merlyn, ‘þat ȝeue þat cole red To bi nyme blod and my lyf. c 1315 Shoreham 105 Hys red was to coul, That let man to suich meschyf. |
4. a. Of persons (and their actions): Not heated by passion or emotion; unexcited, dispassionate; deliberate, not hasty; undisturbed, calm.
| Beowulf 282 And þa cear wylmas colran wurdað. c 1440 Chaucer's L.G.W. (MS. Gg. 4. 27) 258 Thow..thynkist in thyn wit that is ful cole That he nys but a verray propre fole That louyth paramouris to harde and hote. 1570 Levins Manip. 161 Coole, quietus. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 6 Such seething braines..that apprehend More than coole reason euer comprehends. 1611 Bible Prov. xvii. 27 A man of vnderstanding is of an excellent [marg. coole] spirit. 1716–8 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. xxii. 69 Upon cooler reflexion, I think I had done better to have left it alone. 1736 Butler Anal. ii. vii. 376 Some of them were men of the coolest tempers. 1798 Miller in Nicolas Disp. Nelson VII. clviii, I caused a cool and steady fire to be opened on them. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 491 The energy of the young prince had not then been found a match for the cool science of the veteran. 1855 Tennyson Maud ii. i, While she wept, and I strove to be cool. |
b. transf. of things.
| 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 93 In coole matters thou art hot: in the hottest causes, cold. 1689 Tryal Bps. 28 The zeal of one time may bring in that by surprize..which when things are cooll..will appear to be plain injustice. 1795 Burke Regic. Peace iv. Wks. IX. 117 Who now, from dread of the Pope, cannot take a cool bottle of claret..with any tolerable quiet. |
c. (in) cool blood: cf. cold blood.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. v. 77 We should not, when the blood was cool, haue threatend Our Prisoners with the Sword. 1626 Massinger Rom. Actor iv. ii, Be that her prison, till in cooler blood I shall determine of her. 1658 Whole Duty Man x. §22 (1684) 86 That without any provocation at all, in cool bloud, as they say, they can thus wrong their poor brethren. 1774 Goldsm. Grecian Hist. II. 249 He..massacred all the inhabitants in cool blood. 1881 Mrs. P. O'Donoghue Ladies on Horseback ii. v. 72 No horse that ever was foaled could do it [a big leap] in cool blood. |
d. Applied to jazz music: restrained or relaxed in style; also applied to the performer; opp. hot a. orig. U.S.
| 1947 (record by Charlie Parker Quartet, Dial 1015) Cool Blues. 1948 Life 11 Oct. 138 Bebop: New Jazz School is Led by Trumpeter Who is Hot, Cool and Gone. 1950 Christian Sci. Monitor 8 Feb. 15 Bop is ‘cool’ jazz in contrast to the ‘hot’ variety of the swing or Dixieland schools. 1953 Melody Maker 9 May 5 Hot and cool—you've got to hear the lot. 1955 L. Feather Encycl. Jazz (1956) 30 Cool jazz to most musicians and students denotes the understated, behind-the-beat style typified by the arrangements and soloists on the Davis records. 1957 H. Panassié in S. Traill Concerning Jazz 61 The ‘cool’ musicians..stopped using the traditional jazz technique and tone. 1962 J. Wain Strike Father Dead iv. 204 The new developments which were to become first bebop and then just bop and finally cool jazz. |
e. Hence, characteristic of those who favour ‘cool’ music; relaxed; unemotional; also used loosely as a general term of approval; cool cat: see cat n.1 2 c. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1948 New Yorker 3 July 28 The bebop people have a language of their own... Their expressions of approval include ‘cool’! 1953 Time 14 Sept. 68/3 The latest Tin Pan Alley argot, where ‘cool’ means good, ‘crazy’ means wonderful. 1955 N.Y. Times 22 May vi. 19/2 Maybe it's all these new buildings breeding more of these cool Brooks Brothers cats. 1955 Sci. News Let. 1 Oct. 221/2 This is not cool chatter between some young hep-cats in a smoke-filled jazz joint. 1957 Sunday Mail (Glasgow) 10 Feb. 11 Gone—the best, in the top rung, the coolest. 1958 Observer 23 Nov. 16/3 On one side was the frenetic..bumptiousness of the rock-'n'-rollers, on the other the calculated indifference of the cool cats. 1959 Ibid. 25 Oct. 29/8 They got long, sloppy haircuts and wide knot ties and no-press suits with fat lapels. Very cool. |
5. a. Deficient in ardour, zeal, or enthusiasm; lacking warmth of interest, or heartiness; lukewarm.
(In first quot. possibly a verb.)
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. i. 177 'Twill make them coole in zeale vnto your Grace. a 1656 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. (1851) 151 Oh, give me a true sense of my wants: and then, I cannot be cool in asking. 1815 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. X. 169 The people are a little cool both at Vienna and in England in respect to the Bourbons. 1874 Blackie Self Cult. 70 An honest hater is often a better fellow than a cool friend. |
b. Wanting in cordiality.
| 1675 Essex Papers (Camden) I. 319, I found him at first cooler in his reception then when I left him. a 1706 Vanbrugh Mistake i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 442/1 Were I to meet a cool reception. 1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Fam. III. 77, I am rather upon cool terms with him. |
6. Assured and unabashed in demeanour, where the circumstances would call for diffidence and hesitation; calmly and deliberately audacious or impudent in making a proposal or demand: said of persons and their actions. Esp. in phr. cool customer (see customer n. 5).
| 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 80 A right cool fish. a 1845 Barham Ingol. Leg., Black Mousquet., A fact which has stamp'd him a rather ‘Cool hand’. 1873 Black Pr. Thule xxiv. 394 He certainly knew that such a request was a trifle cool. 1874 Mahaffy Soc. Life Greece viii. 256 The cool way in which Plato in his Republic speaks of exposing children. 1941 A. Christie Evil under Sun v. 96 Cool customer. Not giving anything away, is he? 1945 ― Sparkling Cyanide iii. v. 110 At any rate she's a cool customer. |
7. colloq. Applied to a large sum of money.
[Of doubtful origin: perhaps originally ‘deliberately or calmly counted, reckoned, or told’, and hence ‘all told,’ ‘entire’, ‘whole’; but it became a mere phrase, helping to contribute emphasis or reality to the amount.]
| 1728 Vanbr. & Cib. Prov. Husb. ii. i, I just made a couple of Betts with him, took up a cool hundred, and so went to the King's Arms. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones viii. xii, He had lost a cool hundred, and would no longer play. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 201 My table alone stands me in a cool thousand a quarter. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby iv. v. 132 Lord Monmouth had the satisfaction of drawing the Whig minister into a cool thousand on the event. 1861 Dickens Gt. Expect. lvii. 1870 Bradwood The O.V.H. 264 To save me a cool seven hundred a year. |
8. Comb., as cool-rooted, cool-sheltered adjs.; cool chamber, -store, a place in which perishable goods may be kept cool; † cool-crape (see quot.); cool cup, a cooling drink (see quot.); cool-drawn a., drawn or expressed without the aid of heat (cf. cold-drawn); cool-house, a glass-house kept at a cool temperature; cool-trough, a trough in which anything is cooled. Also cool-headed, etc.
| 1887 Col. & Indian Exhib., Rep. Col. Sect. 140 The enterprise of Messrs. S. & Sons in fitting up one of their steamers with a *cool-chamber. 1901 Daily Chron. 1 June 8/6 Provided sufficient ‘cool chamber’ accommodation could be procured on the steamers trading between Australia and England. |
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, *Cool-crape, a slight Chequer'd Stuff made in imitation of Scotch Plad. 1725 New Cant. Dict., When a Person dies, he is said to be put into his Cool-crape. |
| 1818 Todd, *Cool-cup, a beverage, so called, usually composed of wine, water, lemon-peel, sugar, and borage; and introduced at tables in warm weather. |
| 1795 Hull Advertiser 10 Oct. 2/1 Whale Oil of this and last year, *Cool Drawn. |
| 1909 Webster, *Coolhouse. 1949 E. Hyams Not in our Stars viii. 98 He was sometimes alone in the cool⁓house where these raspberries grow. 1958 Listener 21 Aug. 275/1 A Luculia growing up the back wall of a cool house. |
| 1820 Keats Ode to Psyche 13 *Cool-rooted flowers. |
| 1767 Mrs. S. Pennington Lett. III. 171 And here, *cool shelter'd from the mid-day sun. |
| 1959 N.Z. Listener 18 Dec. 8/1 The trees were all about..and only occasionally between them was a gleam of the sun... ‘Like being in a *cool-store, isn't it?’ |
| 1777 Hoole Comenius' Vis. World (ed. 12) 88 He quencheth hot irons in the *cool-trough. |
▪ II. cool, n.1
(kuːl)
For forms see prec.
[f. cool a. Cf. OHG. chuoli, MHG. küele, mod.G. kühle.]
1. That which is cool: the cool part, place, time, thing, etc.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 5534 To see quat selcuthe is seet in þe salt watir, How many kind of creatours þat in þe cole duellis. c 1450 Merlin 191 As they that wolde ride in the cole of the mornynge. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxvi. 227 It were good for us to aryse..it is good to ryde in the coole. 1535 Coverdale Gen. iii. 8 In the coole of the daye [so 1611]. 1713 Addison Cato iii, But see where Lucia..Amid the cool of yon high marble arch, Enjoys the noon-day breeze! 1863 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. III. 171 He..goes for his ride in the cool of the evening. 1879 Browning Pheidippides 64 There in the cool of a cleft, sat he—majestical Pan! |
† 2. A cool breeze, a light and refreshing wind.
| 1393 Gower Conf. II. 231 The wind stood thanne nought amis, But every topsaile cole it blewe. a 1470 Tiptoft Caesar iii. (1530) 4 That he had a good and convenable time and also a good cole. 1506 Sir R. Guylforde Pilgr. 72 The wynde began to blow a ryght good coole in oure waye. 1558 T. Phaer Aeneid iii, A mery coole of wynde them fast pursueth. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Aura..a softe coole of wynde. Aprica Zephyri aura, a warme coole of [wynde]. |
3. Coolness.
| 14.. Songs & Carols (1847) 35 A pilion or taberd to wer in hete or cole. 1535 Coverdale Prov. xxv. 13 Like as the wynter coole in the haruest. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 1109 There oft the Indian Herdsman shunning heate Shelters in coole. 1860 Sir T. Martin Horace 133 Thou a grateful cool dost yield To the flocks that range afield. |
4. fig.
| 1617 Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 1112 God loves to give us cools and heats in our desires. 1659 W. Brough Sacr. Princ. 291 Men of intemperate heates and cooles in religion. 1714 Arbuthnot, etc. Mart. Scriblerus ii. ix, To treat..of the emollients and opiates of poesy, of the cool, and the manner of producing it. |
b. A truce between gangs. U.S. slang.
| 1958 Daily Tel. 8 Apr., Cool, an uneasy armistice between child-gangs. 1959 H. E. Salisbury Shook-Up Generation iii. 47 A ‘cool’ was negotiated by street club workers. But it was an uneasy truce, often broken. |
c. Composure, relaxedness. Cf. cool a. 4 e. slang.
| 1966 New Statesman 8 Apr. 512/2 There is a place where it nearly loses its cool, in fact, when doomed Mr Hamilton is dragged about, manacled to a great cross-piece and generally abused. 1966 New Yorker 18 June 37 I'll bet that old guy has never blown his cool. 1967 Listener 19 Jan. 101/2 Professor Marcus consistently keeps his cool when sex is being discussed; all the four-letter words are used without blanching. 1968 Win 15 Oct. 3/2 It is one thing for violence to break out by accident, because we lose our cool, and it is another thing to take..a bottle to a demonstration ‘just in case’ we lose our cool. |
▪ III. cool, n.2 Comm.
(kuːl)
[Another form of cowl n.2]
A tub of butter, usually of 28 lb., but sometimes of other size.
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 104 Cool, a tub cut in two, in which butter is sometimes sent to market..it weighs from ½ cwt. to 1 cwt. 1891 Daily News 27 Oct. 2/8 (Trade Report) Butter.—Cork. Prices show another advance..Fine mild-cured and fine cools advanced 1s. |
▪ IV. cool, v.
(kuːl)
Forms: 1 cólian, 3–7 cole, (3–5 colen), 4–5 kole, koole, 5–6 Sc. cule, cuill, 4–7 coole, 7– cool.
[OE. cólian (cólode) = OS. côlôn:—OTeut. *kôlôjan to be cold or cool, f. kôlu-z adj. cool, f. stem kal- cold: see note to cold a. The trans. use is not original, and appeared in ME. with the obsolescence of the original trans. kele, keel, OE. cœlan, célan:—OTeut. *kôljan to make cool.]
1. intr. To become cool; to become less hot or warm. Often with down, rarely off.
| a 1000 Guthlac 1281 (Gr.) Lic colode. a 1000 Andreas 1258 (Gr.) Weder coledon. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 204 Seoð on weallendon wætere, let þonne colian. a 1225 Juliana 70 Hit [boiling pitch] colede anan. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 44 In boylande water þou kast hom may. To harden þen take hom oute to cole. 1527 Andrew Brunswyke's Distyll. Waters B ij b, Whan it is baken..let it cole by hymselfe. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 396 A while discourse they hold; No fear lest Dinner coole. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 308 The eggs..of small birds..being liable to cool more quickly. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 81 What form the melted matter may assume at great depths on cooling down. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 175 It cools with extreme slowness. 1890 C. A. Young Elem. Astron. §487 Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, do not seem yet to have cooled off to anything like the earth's condition. |
2. fig. a. To lose the heat of excitement, passion, or emotion; to lose fervour, to become less zealous or ardent. Also with off.
| a 1000 Guthlac 9 (Gr.) Colaþ Cristes lufu. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 250/2 He made to cole the cruelte of the persecutours. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 62 Their good opinion therin..cooles. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iv. ii. 19 Thou hast describ'd A hot Friend cooling. 1605 ― Macb. iv. i. 154 This deed Ile do, before this purpose coole. 1663 Bp. Patrick Parab. Pilgr. xix (1668) 193 After the first onset..they are wont to cool and make a retreat. 1735 Pope Ep. Lady 261 She, who ne'er answers till a Husband cools. 1842 Macaulay Ess. Fredk. Gt. (1854) 679/2 This eccentric friendship was fast cooling. 1882 Besant Revolt of Man v. (1883) 114 To give this feeling time to cool down. 1887 Lantern (New Orleans) 7 May 2/2 Maher was sent to jail to cool off. 1908 Smart Set Sept. 83/2 He rose suddenly and went upstairs with his anger... He sat there cooling off by the window. |
† b. To become ‘cold’ with fear. Obs. rare.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. v. v. 10 The time has beene, my sences would have cool'd To heare a Night-shrieke. |
† c. Of things: To lose their opportuneness.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. ii. 240 Come, to the Forge with it then, shape it: I would not haue things coole. 1607 ― Cor. iv. i. 43 Aduantage, which doth euer coole Ith' absence of the needer. |
3. a. trans. To make cool; to cause to lose heat or become less hot. (Formerly expressed by keel.)
| c 1490 Promp. Parv. 87 (MS. K.) Colyn or kelyn, frigefacio. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. v. 122 To be throwne into the Thames, and coold..like a Horse-shoo. 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. (Percy Soc.) 42 You may..keepe your winde to coole your pottage. 1705 Addison Italy (J.) Snow they use..because, as they say, it cools or congeals any liquor sooner. 1862 Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. III. iii. 74 A thunderstorm..had cooled the atmosphere. |
b. To impart the sensation of coolness to, esp. to refresh by allaying excessive or painful heat.
| c 1320 Sir Beues 2814 A dede of is helm of stel And colede him þer in fraiche wel. 1382 Wyclif Luke xvi. 24 Send Lazarus, that he dippe the laste part of his fyngur in water, and kele [MS. X. c 1410 koole] my tunge. c 1470 Henry Wallace x. 428 The cler watter culyt the hors sumdeill. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. i. 65 Warmed and cooled by the same Winter and Sommer as a Christian is. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 699 The ready Cure to cool the raging Pain. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 289 Cooling her false cheek with a featherfan. |
c. To reduce the temperature of the blood or of the ‘humours’ of the body. Also absol.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 11 (MS. B) Whanne þat a mete oþere a medycine..hetyth hym noȝt & colyth hym nauȝt. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. v. 24 As if I had swallow'd snow⁓bals, for pilles to coole the reines. 1615 Latham Falconry (1633) 100 You must..coole it [the heat of the hawk's stomach] with some coole thing that is meet for it. 1702 J. Purcell Cholick (1714) 161 Steel..given in this manner (which for the most part rather Cools than Heats). |
d. Painting. To make less ‘warm’ in colour; to tone down the reds or yellows in a picture.
e. To kill. U.S. slang.
| 1930 E. W. Scott in Flynn's 6 Sept. 849/1 Eight stick-up Johnnies out of ten aren't so hot about coolin' a cop. 1965 ‘D. Shannon’ Death-Bringers (1966) v. 62 Anybody could have cooled him... I don't care one hell of a lot who shot Walter William. 1969 ‘J. Morris’ Fever Grass 251 He wasn't killed in any private fight... He was cooled by a Chinese agent. |
4. fig. a. To cause (a person) to lose the heat of excitement, passion, or emotion; to make less ardent or zealous; to diminish the intensity of (strong feeling, emotion, resolve). Also (U.S. colloq.) with out.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxxviii. 18 That i ware kolid in þi mercy fra hete of vices and temptaciouns. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. iv. xii. 265 To repente hymself of the castynge of his gage and to be so koled of the bataylle. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 260 The king then being somewhat cooled of his great furie, graunted their desire. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. i. 59 He hath..thwarted my bargaines, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies. 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals ii. i. 136 Which cools the resolutions of the zealousest Prince. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 198 ¶13 I found my friends..cooled in their affection. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 524 The lapse of time which cools the ardour of the friends whom he has left behind. 1950 N.Y. Herald Tribune 29 July 10/8 The tear-up and the cackle-bladder, two of the major devices for cooling out a mark. 1964 A. W. Gouldner in I. L. Horowitz New Sociology 209 One of the con men remains behind ‘to cool the mark out’, seeking to persuade him to accept his loss of face rather than go to the police. Ibid., The restaurant hostess who cools out the impatient customer. |
b. To deprive (a thing) of its opportuneness or freshness of interest; to make stale.
| 1716–8 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. I. xl. 164 The great gulf between you and me cools all news that come hither. 1738 Thyer Byrom's Rem. (1856) II. i. 198 You are come too late, the thing is cooled. |
5. Phrases. a. † to cool cares: to assuage them: see also keel v. to cool one's coppers: see copper n. 7. to cool one's heels († hoofs): i.e. by rest, after the feet have become hot with walking; hence, ironically, to be kept standing or waiting.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1253 Keure hem comfort, & colen her carez. c 1611 Chapman Iliad iii. 340 The soldiers all sat down enrank'd, each by his arms and horse That then lay down and cool'd their hoofs. 1633 W. R. Match at Midnight iii. in Hazl. Dodsley XIII. 52 To..let him cool his heels there till morning. 1641 Barthol. Faire (N. s.v. Heels), Who forthwith comitted my little hot furie to the stockes, where we will leave him to coole his heeles. 1752 Fielding Amelia vi. ix, In this parlour Amelia cooled her heels, as the phrase is, near a quarter of an hour. 1884 Rider Haggard Dawn x, Whilst Philip was cooling his heels in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a rather curious scene was in progress. |
b. to cool it: to relax, calm down, ‘take it easy’. Cf. cool a. 4 e. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1953 E. Gilbert Hot & Cool 13 Cool it, girl. Nobody's interested. 1954 Time 8 Nov. 42/1, I cooled it at a table for a while. 1959 Encounter Aug. 35/2 The Wizard took my arm, and said, ‘Cool it, kiddo.’ 1968 Crescendo June 33/1 Cool it will you? I said once a week, there's no need to go stark raving mad. |
▪ V. † cool, v.2 Obs. rare.
Also cole.
[? a. F. couler to flow, run as a liquid:—L. cōlāre to pass through a filter, f. cōlum a strainer.]
intr. To run, flow.
| 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 23 The vessels through which it colith or runnith. Ibid. Hh iij, It droppeth and coolyth out of the vaynes. |
▪ VI. cool, coole
obs. ff. cole, cowl n.1