Coldness

[f. COLD a. + -NESS.]

  1.  lit. The condition of being cold, cold quality.

1391.  Chaucer, Astrol., I. § 21. Ȝif a planete be colde, thanne amenuseth his coldnesse, by-cause of the hote signe.

c. 1400.  Beryn, 2730. Coldnes of a stoon.

1555.  Eden, Decades W. Ind., I. I. (Arb.), 65. Neyther the coldenesse of wynter is sharpe vnto them.

1692.  Bentley, Boyle Lect., 51. Redness, and coldness, and the like, are only idea’s and vital passions in us that see and feel.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., II. § 3. 247. The comparative coldness of the upper regions of the atmosphere.

  b.  In old Physiology: see COLD a. 6.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. i. (1495), 76. Two of thyse qualytees ben callyd active, able to werke, hote and coldnesse; that other two, drye and wetenes, ben callid passive, able to suffre.

1528.  Paynel, Salerne’s Regim., F iiij b. Suche wynes … amende the coldenesse of complection.

1643.  Denham, Cooper’s H., 7 (J.).

  2.  fig. Want of warmth of feeling or cordiality; indifference, apathy.

1557.  Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 247. So hath your coldnesse caused me, To burne in my desire.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxvi. § 8. Coldness in affection and … backwardness in duties of service.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., II. iii. 393. Dull not Deuice, by coldnesse, and delay.

1709.  Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., lxi. 100. I cannot bear to be accused of coldness by one whom I shall love all my life.

1770.  Wesley, Wks. (1872), XIII. 47. Continue in private prayer, in spite of all coldness and wanderings.

1880.  McCarthy, Own Times, III. xxx. 7. The proposal was received with coldness.

  † 3.  Coolness, deliberateness. Obs.

1548.  Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. xv. 84. He might make the constancye and coldnes of the straunge woman more maruelous.

  4.  Of coloring; cf. COLD a. 15.

1859.  Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 225. Blue alone possesses entirely the quality technically called coldness in painting: yellows and reds partaking more or less of the opposite quality of warmth.