Forms: 1 cele, ciele, cile, cyle, 2–4 chele, 4 chile, 5 cheele, 7– chill. [OE. cęle, cięle, cold, coldness:—OTeut. type kali-z masc., f. kal-an to be COLD: not exemplified in the other Teut. langs. This word seems to have become obs. by 1400, after the vb. and adj. had been formed from it, its place being taken by COLD sb. Since c. 1600 it has been revived, app. as a new formation from the vb., and in a modified sense evidently of verbal origin. But see note to CHILL v. For etymological relation of chill, cool, † kele, acale, cold, and their derivatives, see COLD.]
I. In OE. and ME. (chile, chele, cheele.)
† 1. The former equivalent of the modern COLD, used, e.g., of the coldness of the weather, frost.
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter cxlvii. 6. Biforan ansiene celes his.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xxxix. 285. For ciele [Cott. cile] nele se slawa erian on wintra.
971. Blickl. Hom., 59. On cyle he bið afeded.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom. (1867), 33. Hunger and þurst and chele.
a. 1200. Moral Ode, in Trin. Coll. Hom., 226. Þurst and hunger, chele [v.r. chule] and hete.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1615. Wiþþ chele & þrisst & hunngerr.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 152. Þat water of Baþe … euer is iliche hot … & euere springeþ ne be þe chele so gret.
c. 1300. St. Brandan, 62. Ne chile ne hete ne fonde ȝe noȝt.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 135. Scythia … haþ moche wildernes by cause of greet colde and chele.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXIII. 236. Sitthen þei chosen chile and chaytif pouerte, Let hem chewe as þei chosen.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 3392. I haue cheueride for chele.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4164. A velans vale, þare was a vile cheele.
II. In modern use [f. the vb. or adj.]. (chill.)
2. Coldness seizing upon or pervading the body; an unnaturally lowered bodily temperature marked by shivering, etc.; the cold fit of an ague; now especially a sudden affection of physical cold, a sudden chilling of the body, which is often a first stage or symptom of illness; hence, to catch a chill, to give (one) a chill, etc.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Mart., A vj b. A cold congealed ice, a bloudlesse chill.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., IV. iii. (ed. 3), 136 (J.). To have a sort of Chill about his Præcordia and Head.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, X. 403. The death-doom’d foe … Felt such a chill run through his shivering frame.
1802. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 310. Irregular chills, fever and sweats.
1860–1. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing, 91. You may give a baby a chill which will kill it … without giving it fresh air at all.
3. A coldness of the air, water, etc., that tends to make one shiver; a cold that has a depressing, benumbing or penetrating effect on the body. To take the chill off (a liquid): to raise it to a temperate heat (colloq.).
1788. Ld. Auckland, Diary in Spain (1861), II. 89. At about six the air … changed suddenly to a chill.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 11. 84. The chill was painful to the teeth.
1868. Miss Yonge, Pupils St. John, I. 34. The chill of early dawn.
1870. Tennyson, Passing of Arthur, 96. A deathwhite mist … Whereof the chill, to him who breathed it, drew Down with his blood, till all his heart was cold.
b. in pl. Chilling states of the atmosphere.
1832. L. Hunt, Poems, 167. No sooner have the chills withdrawn, Than the bright elm is tufted on the lawn.
1833. N. Arnott, Physics, II. 19. The chills of night and the biting blasts of winter.
1887. Stevenson, Underwoods, I. xxvii. 58.
4. fig. a. A benumbing and depressing sensation or influence upon the feelings. To cast or throw a chill over: to damp the warmth or ardor of.
1821. Byron, Sardan., I. ii. A chill Comes o’er my heart.
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), 14. The comparatively prosaic results … have thrown a chill over our political imagination.
b. Absence of warmth of feeling or sympathy; depressing coldness or iciness of manner.
1837. Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., III. 85. We … in no instance that I remember failed to dissipate the chill by showing that we were ready to … be sociable.
1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., viii. The boys gave three feeble cheers. Such cheers! sighs of extra strength with the chill on.
5. techn. An iron mold, or a piece of iron in a sand mold, for making ‘chilled’ castings: cf. CHILL v. 6.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., s.v.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 120. Iron … which had been cast in an iron mould or ‘chill.’
b. A mass of chilled material in a blast-furnace.
1874. Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Engineers, II. 60. Firing shots up into the chilled mass … bringing down from time to time portions of the chill.
6. Painting. A cloudy appearance on the surface of a picture; ‘blooming.’
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Science, II. viii. (ed. 6), 117.
