to cool off
105
2.7
- phrasal verb
- /kuːl ɔf/
- After a heated argument, I decided to take a walk to cool off and clear my mind.
- let things cool off
- cool off a bit
- cool off a little
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Watch on YouTubeThat's a situation where you want to make sure you cool off first, then you go have the discussion.
- That's a situation where you want to make sure you cool off first, then you go have the discussion.
- Then once the load is alleviated for a while, it could slowly cool off while you're performing light tasks.
- So if you got lava, you have molten rock and it cools off.
- They would say cool off a little and say sorry and and cooperate again.
- Like, you know, I remember putting my head in a mud hole like, you know, for water just to cool off at some point.
- Every time you move to try to solve the problem, they will respond by saying you're moving too fast, you ought to cool off, you should put on brakes.
- The first is that taking off the foil from the blade before oil quenching took a really long time and the blade cooled off.
- And then I got caught holding the bag and I bought a bunch of bad deals that didn't sell once they raised rates and the market cooled off.
Examples
-
That's a situation where you want to make sure you cool off first, then you go have the discussion.
-
Why not play a round or two and cool off at the same time with pickleball?
-
You tell them to cool off.
-
We're waiting for it to cool off.
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Get me out of the office for a few days, wait till I cool off... it has nothing to do with that.
-
We stay out of the area for a while; things will cool off.
Fiction book (1997) -
Come on down and cool off at the hottest hole in town.
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"You can wait here while things cool off downstairs," I said.
Fiction book (1999) -
I think you'd better cool off.
-
People leave their hot tenements to cool off in the summer rain.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Make a person or animal less upset
989
1.4
To become less angry, excited, or upset
166
2.5
To become quiet and calm after being excited
138
4.9
To relax and become calm after you feel upset
132
4.1
To become less strong in feeling or interest
59
3.7
To relax after a busy or stressful time and slowly come to an end
59
3.7
To make something less strong or strict
58
2.5
Feel less angry or excited
55
6.2
To calm down and stop being angry or excited
43
3.4
Become relaxed and less tense after work or a stressful time
40
4.2
Make a feeling or action less strong
31
3.5
Do something active, like go for a run, to feel less angry or stressed
22
6.3
Become more relaxed and easygoing
19
4.0
To become gradually less strong or severe
14
4.1
To become calm after strong feelings or to tell someone else to calm down
11
5.7
Reduce the strength of feelings or public anger
4
8.6
Calm down and relax after feeling stressed or excited
Antonyms
How Calm
- Informal
105
2.7
166
2.5
- Informal
54
2.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
cool + off
The sense 'to become less enthusiastic or interested' is directly derivable from 'cool' (to lessen intensity) combined with the particle 'off', which here signals reduction or moving away from a prior state. This compositional phrasal-verb pattern (cf. 'cool down') is commonplace in English and in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Cool off comes from the picture of something hot becoming colder: cool means less hot and off means away, like a boiling kettle that stops steaming. So cool off means 'to become calmer or less angry'.