cold fish
5
7.6
- idiom
- /koʊld fɪʃ/
- Offensive
:
persona fría
- Many colleagues describe him as a cold fish because he rarely engages in friendly conversations.
And the reason he was was that Len is a cold fish.
- And the reason he was was that Len is a cold fish.
Examples
-
Nicole's always been a cold fish.
-
There was a no-nonsense, businesslike air about her, and for a split second, Meredith was put off, thinking that she might be a cold fish.
Fiction book (1996) -
Boy, you sure are a cold fish.
-
Boy, Eve is a cold fish.
-
A bit of a cold fish, I'd say.
-
She's such a cold fish, you know?
-
Maybe she's a cold fish.
Fiction book (1992) -
Rumor has it you're a real cold fish.
-
He's a cold fish.
-
And as a retail politician, Dewhurst is a cold fish, with no warmth for people he doesn't know.
Blog text (34)
Synonyms
3
8.5
A woman who seems cold and not open about her feelings
1
8.8
A woman who seems cold and shows little feeling
Antonyms
How Warm
1
3.7
773
1.0
329
1.0
- Offensive
5
7.6
9
7.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
cold + fish
The adjective 'cold' already carries the sense 'unfriendly/aloof', so a learner who knows that meaning can largely infer that 'cold fish' describes an unemotional person. However, the noun 'fish' does not contribute a transparent, compositional meaning here (it is a metaphorical or colloquial label), and the collocational/idiomatic use is not fully predictable across languages, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The noun cold fish comes from the image of a cold fish that is stiff and quiet when it is out of water. Because the animal looks lifeless and not warm, the phrase means 'a person who is distant or shows little feeling'.