What does "cool" mean?
Cool: Not ardent, warm, fond, or passionate; not hasty; deliberate; exercising self-control; self-possessed; dispassionate; indifferent; as, a cool lover; a cool debater. For a patriot, too cool. Goldsmith.
Additional senses
- 2.Not retaining heat; light; as, a cool dress.
- 3.Manifesting coldness or dislike; chilling; apathetic; as, a cool manner.
- 4.Quietly impudent; negligent of propriety in matters of minor importance, either ignorantly or willfully; presuming and selfish; audacious; as, cool behavior. Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable. Hawthorne.
- 5.Applied facetiously, in a vague sense, to a sum of money, commonly as if to give emphasis to the largeness of the amount. He had lost a cool hundred. Fielding. Leaving a cool thousand to Mr.Matthew Pocket. Dickens.
- 6.A moderate state of cold; coolness; -- said of the temperature of the air between hot and cold; as, the cool of the day; the cool of the morning or evening.
- 7.To make cool or cold; to reduce the temperature of; as, ice cools water. Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue. Luke xvi.
- 8.2. To moderate the heat or excitement of; to allay, as passion of any kind; to calm; to moderate. We have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts. Shak. To cool the heels, to dance attendance; to wait, as for admission to a patron's house. [Colloq.] Dryden.
- 9.To become less hot; to lose heat. I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus, the whilst his iron did on the anvil cool. Shak.
- 10.To lose the heat of excitement or passion; to become more moderate. I will not give myself liberty to think, lest I should cool. Congreve.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
- Canonical URL: https://worddirectanswers.com/answers/what-does-cool-mean
- Steward: Jason Burns
- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00