cold war
14
3.6
- noun
- /koʊld wɔr/
:
Guerra Fría
- During the cold war, both nations engaged in an arms race without direct military conflict.
- post-Cold War
- Cold War era
- new Cold War
Examples
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For South Korea, on the other hand, the cold war threat from the North remains as immediate and deep-seated as ever.
Academic text (2000) -
A British physicist is saying the atomic bombings were not the last act of World War II, but the first act of this cold war with Russia.
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Since the cold war, our government has employed a task force...
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Even afterwards, during the cold war, we played along with each other.
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His nuclear arsenal could have brought the world into a new cold war.
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We're not fighting a war on terror; we're fighting a cold war against Iran.
Blog text (22) -
Egyptian security worries are prominent in the current round of cold war between Egypt and Sudan.
Academic text (1997) -
Unless we hand him victory now, Milosevic will lose a cold war, and real peace can then come to the Balkans.
Academic text (1994) -
China has called for abandoning the cold war mentality and establishing a new security concept.
Academic text (2003) -
Domestic instability is accelerating interstate conflict and paving the way for an unfettered cold war.
Academic text (1997)
Antonyms
How Hostile
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'cold' (metaphorically indicating lack of overt or 'hot' fighting) with 'war' (organized hostile relations), so a learner who knows the constituents can plausibly infer it refers to hostile relations without open combat. However the conventionalized, political-historical sense (e.g. the post‑WWII superpower rivalry) and the metaphorical use of 'cold' are not fully predictable from the parts alone, even though many languages use an equivalent term.
Etymology
The term cold war comes from the image of a war that is cold: there is no open 'hot' fighting, but instead threats, spying and strong words. So it means 'a state of political tension without open war'.