Forms: 1 cól, 3–5 cole, 4 coul, 6 Sc. cuill, 4–7 coole, 3, 7– cool. [OE. cól:—OTeut. *kôlu-z, f. ablaut stem of kal- = L. gel- cold: see note under etymology of COLD. Passage from the -u into the -jo declension (*kôljo-z) gave OHG. chuoli, MHG. küele, G. kühl cool.]
1. Moderately cold; said of a temperature which, in contrast with heat, is cold enough to be agreeable and refreshing, or, in contrast with cold, is not so low as to be positively disagreeable or painful.
In earlier use sometimes app. not distinguished from cold.
a. 1000. Boeth. Metr., v. 26. Swa oft æsprinȝe utawealleð of clife harum col and hlutor.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 324. Hrer mid sticcan oþ þæt hit col sie.
c. 1275. Pains of Hell, 82, in O. E. Misc., 149. Þat fule pool Þat euer is hot and neuer cool.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., C. 452. Al schet in a schaȝe þat schaded ful cole.
c. 1490. Promp. Parv., 87 (MS. K). Cole or sumwhat colde.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 202. In mid winter quhen that the wedder is cuill.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 89. Vnder the coole shade of a Siccamore.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 216. With spreading Planes he made a cool Retreat.
1750. Gray, Elegy, xix. Along the cool sequester’d vale of life.
1776. Trial Nundocomar, 32/2. He was then in a cool sweat, with a low pulse.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 177. We were in the cool shadow of the mountain.
1881. Rossetti, Song & Music. O leave your hand where it lies cool Upon the eyes whose lids are hot.
b. fig.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. iii. 30. The coole and temperate Wind of Grace. Ibid. (1602), Ham., III. iv. 124. Vpon the heate and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle coole patience.
1738. Wesley, Come Holy Spirit, ii. Come, Thou our Passion’s cool Allay.
1767. W. Hanbury, Charities Ch. Langton, 108. The country, seeing the cool water thrown on it [a scheme].
c. Producing a sensation of coolness; not admitting or retaining heat; as ‘a cool dress.’
d. Med. Said of a medicine, treatment, etc., that lowers the temperature of the blood; cooling.
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 100. You must … coole it [the heat of the hawk’s stomach] with some coole thing that is meet for it.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 208. Assist them with Emulsions of the cooler seeds … as Melons, Cucumbers.
1793. Beddoes, Catarrh, 151. The cool treatment of small pox.
2. transf. a. Applied to a sensation of the organs of taste analogous to that of actual coolness; or to anything that produces this sensation.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 252. Nitrites have properties common to nitrates; such as a cool taste.
b. Hunting. Of a scent: Faint, weak. Cf. COLD a. 12.
1647. N. Bacon, Laws Eng., I. lxvii. (1739), 158. Though … they lost ground, and hunted upon a cool scent.
c. Of colors: Between ‘warm’ and ‘cold’; containing low-toned red or yellow; as, ‘a cool green.’
† d. ? Having little vitality or force. Obs.
1669. Marvell, Corr., Wks. 1872–5, II. 282. I reckon they have but a coole patent of it, and I suppose should they bring it into Parliament it will prove not only impossible there but ridiculous.
† 3. fig. Chilled, depressed. Obs. Cf. COLD a. 9.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 9255. Þen comford he caght in his cole hert.
† b. Chilling, comfortless. Obs. Cf. COLD a. 10.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 131. ‘Waþ segge ȝe maistres,’ quod Merlyn, ‘þat ȝeue þat cole red To þi nyme blod and my lyf.’
c. 1315. Shoreham, 105. Hys red was to coul, That let man to suich meschyf.
4. Of persons (and their actions): Not heated by passion or emotion; unexcited, dispassionate; deliberate, not hasty; undisturbed, calm.
Beowulf, 282. And þa cear wylmas colran wurdað.
c. 1440. Chaucer’s L. G. W. (MS. Gg. 4. 27), 258. Thow … thynkist in thyn wit that is ful cole That he nys but a verray propre fole That louyth paramouris to harde and hote.
1570. Levins, Manip., 161. Coole, quietus.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 6. Such seething braines … that apprehend More than coole reason euer comprehends.
1611. Bible, Prov. xvii. 27. A man of vnderstanding is of an excellent [marg. coole] spirit.
1716–8. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., xxii. 69. Upon cooler reflexion, I think I had done better to have left it alone.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. vii. 376. Some of them were men of the coolest tempers.
1798. Miller, in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson, VII. clviii. I caused a cool and steady fire to be opened on them.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 49. The energy of the young prince had not then been found a match for the cool science of the veteran.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, II. i. While she wept, and I strove to be cool.
b. transf. of things.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 93. In coole matters thou art hot: in the hottest causes, cold.
1689. Tryal Bps., 28. The zeal of one time may bring in that by surprize … which when things are cooll … will appear to be plain injustice.
1795. Burke, Regic. Peace, IV. Wks. IX. 117. Who now, from dread of the Pope, cannot take a cool bottle of claret … with any tolerable quiet.
c. (In) cool blood: cf. COLD BLOOD.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. v. 77. We should not, when the blood was cool, haue threatend Our Prisoners with the Sword.
1626. Massinger, Rom. Actor, IV. ii. Be that her prison, till in cooler blood I shall determine of her.
1658. Whole Duty Man, x. § 22 (1684), 86. That without any provocation at all, in cool bloud, as they say, they can thus wrong their poor brethren.
1774. Goldsm., Grecian Hist., II. 249. He … massacred all the inhabitants in cool blood.
1881. Mrs. P. O’Donoghue, Ladies on Horseback, II. v. 72. No horse that ever was foaled could do it [a big leap] in cool blood.
5. Deficient in ardor, zeal, or enthusiasm; lacking warmth of interest, or heartiness; lukewarm.
(In first quot. possibly a verb).
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. i. 177. ’Twill make them coole in zeale vnto your Grace.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 151. Oh, give me a true sense of my wants: and then, I cannot be cool in asking.
1815. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. X. 169. The people are a little cool both at Vienna and in England in respect to the Bourbons.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 70. An honest hater is often a better fellow than a cool friend.
b. Wanting in cordiality.
1675. Essex Papers (Camden), I. 319. I found him at first cooler in his reception then when I left him.
a. 1706. Vanbrugh, Mistake, I. Wks. (Rtldg.), 442/1. Were I to meet a cool reception.
1800. Mrs. Hervey, Mourtray Fam., III. 77. I am rather upon cool terms with him.
6. Assured and unabashed in demeanor, where the circumstances would call for diffidence and hesitation; calmly and deliberately audacious or impudent in making a proposal or demand: said of persons and their actions.
1825. C. M. Westmacott, Eng. Spy, I. 80. A right cool fish.
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Black Mousquet. A fact which has stamp’d him a rather ‘Cool hand.’
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, xxiv. 394. He certainly knew that such a request was a trifle cool.
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, viii. 256. The cool way in which Plato in his Republic speaks of exposing children.
7. colloq. Applied to a large sum of money.
[Of doubtful origin: perhaps originally ‘deliberately or calmly counted, reckoned, or told,’ and hence ‘all told,’ ‘entire,’ ‘whole’; but it became a mere phrase, helping to contribute emphasis or reality to the amount.]
1728. Vanbr. & Cib., Prov. Husb., II. i. I just made a couple of Betts with him, took up a cool hundred, and so went to the King’s Arms.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VIII. xii. He had lost a cool hundred, and would no longer play.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 201. My table alone stands me in a cool thousand a quarter.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, IV. v. 132. Lord Monmouth had the satisfaction of drawing the Whig minister into a cool thousand on the event.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., lvii. She had wrote out a little coddleshell in her own hand a day or two afore the accident, leaving a cool four thousand to Mr. Matthew Pocket.
1870. ‘Wat. Bradwood’ The O. V. H., 264. To save me a cool seven hundred a year.
8. Comb., as cool-rooted, -sheltered adjs.; † cool-crape (see quot.); cool cup, a cooling drink (see quot.); cool-drawn a., drawn or expressed without the aid of heat (cf. cold-drawn); cool-trough, a trough in which anything is cooled. Also COOL-HEADED, etc.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, *Cool-crape, a slight Chequer’d Stuff made in imitation of Scotch Plad.
1725. New Cant. Dict., When a Person dies, he is said to be put into his Cool-crape.
1818. Todd, *Cool-cup, a beverage, so called, usually composed of wine, water, lemon-peel, sugar, and borage; and introduced at tables in warm weather.
1795. Hull Advertiser, 10 Oct., 2/1. Whale Oil of this and last year, *Cool Drawn.
1820. Keats, Ode to Psyche, 13. *Cool-rooted flowers.
1767. Mrs. S. Pennington, Lett., III. 171. And here, *cool shelter’d from the mid-day sun.
1777. Hoole, Comenius’ Vis. World (ed. 12), 88. He quencheth hot irons in the *cool-trough.
