Forms: 1 cólian, 3–7 cole, (3–5 colen), 4–5 kole, koole, 5–6 Sc. cule, cuill, 4–7 coole, 7– cool. [OE. cólian (cólode) = OS. côlôn:—OTeut. *kôlôjan to be cold or cool, f. kôlu-z adj. cool, f. stem kal- cold: see note to COLD a. The trans. use is not original, and appeared in ME. with the obsolescence of the original trans. kele, KEEL, OE. cœlan, célan:—OTeut. *kôljan to make cool.]
1. intr. To become cool; to become less hot or warm. Often with down, rarely off.
a. 1000. Guthlac, 1281 (Gr.). Lic colode.
a. 1000. Andreas, 1258 (Gr.). Weder coledon.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 204. Seoð on weallendon wætere, let þonne colian.
a. 1225. Juliana, 70. Hit [boiling pitch] colede anan.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 44. In boylande water þou kast hom may. To harden þen take hom oute to cole.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, B ij b. Whan it is baken … let it cole by hymselfe.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 396. A while discourse they hold; No fear lest Dinner coole.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), V. 308. The eggs … of small birds … being liable to cool more quickly.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 81. What form the melted matter may assume at great depths on cooling down.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 175. It cools with extreme slowness.
1890. C. A. Young, Elem. Astron., § 487. Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, do not seem yet to have cooled off to anything like the earth’s condition.
2. fig. a. To lose the heat of excitement, passion, or emotion; to lose fervor, to become less zealous or ardent.
a. 1000. Guthlac, 9 (Gr.). Colaþ Cristes lufu.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 250/2. He made to cole the cruelte of the persecutours.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 62. Their good opinion therin … cooles.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. ii. 19. Thou hast describ’d A hot Friend cooling. Ibid. (1605), Macb., IV. i. 154. This deed Ile do, before this purpose coole.
1663. Bp. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xix. (1668), 193. After the first onset … they are wont to cool and make a retreat.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 261. She, who ne’er answers till a Husband cools.
1842. Macaulay, Ess. Fredk. Gt. (1854), 679/2. This eccentric friendship was fast cooling.
1882. Besant, Revolt of Man, v. (1883), 114. To give this feeling time to cool down.
† b. To become ‘cold’ with fear. Obs. rare.
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. v. 10. The time has beene, my sences would have cool’d To heare a Night-shrieke.
† c. Of things: To lose their opportuneness.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. ii. 240. Come, to the Forge with it then, shape it: I would not haue things coole. Ibid. (1607), Cor., IV. i. 43. Aduantage, which doth euer coole Ith’ absence of the needer.
3. trans. To make cool; to cause to lose heat or become less hot. (Formerly expressed by KEEL.)
c. 1490. Promp. Parv., 87 (MS. K.). Colyn or kelyn, frigefacio.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. v. 122. To be throwne into the Thames, and coold … like a Horse-shoo.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt. (Percy Soc.), 42. You may … keepe your winde to coole your pottage.
1705. Addison, Italy, 242. Snow, which they here [sc. Naples] use instead of Ice, because, as they say, it cools or congeals any Liquor sooner.
1862. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., III. iii. 74. A thunderstorm … had cooled the atmosphere.
b. To impart the sensation of coolness to, esp. to refresh by allaying excessive or painful heat.
c. 1320. Sir Beues, 2814. A dede of is helm of stel And colede him þer in fraiche wel.
1382. Wyclif, Luke xvi. 24. Send Lazarus, that he dippe the laste part of his fyngur in water, and kele [MS. X. c. 1410 koole] my tunge.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, X. 428. The cler watter culyt the hors sumdeill.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 65. Warmed and cooled by the same Winter and Sommer as a Christian is.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 699. The ready Cure to cool the raging Pain.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s Field, 289. Cooling her false cheek with a featherfan.
c. To reduce the temperature of the blood or of the ‘humours’ of the body. Also absol.
1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 11 (MS. B). Whanne þat a mete oþere a medycine … hetyth hym noȝt & colyth hym nauȝt.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., V. 24. As if I had swallow’d snowbals, for pilles to coole the reines.
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.
1702. J. Purcell, Cholick (1714), 161. Steel … given in this manner (which for the most part rather Cools than Heats).
d. Painting. To make less ‘warm’ in color; to tone down the reds or yellows in a picture.
4. fig. To cause (a person) to lose the heat of excitement, passion, or emotion; to make less ardent or zealous; to diminish the intensity of (strong feeling, emotion, resolve).
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xxxviii. 18. That i ware kolid in þi mercy fra hete of vices and temptaciouns.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., IV. xii. 265. To repente hymself of the castynge of his gage and to be so koled of the bataylle.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 260. The king then being somewhat cooled of his great furie, graunted their desire.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 59. He hath … thwarted my bargaines, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, II. I. 136. Which cools the resolutions of the zealousest Prince.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 198, ¶ 13. I found my friends … cooled in their affection.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 524. The lapse of time which cools the ardour of the friends whom he has left behind.
b. fig. To deprive (a thing) of its opportuneness or freshness of interest; to make stale.
1716–8. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. xl. 164. The great gulf between you and me cools all news that come hither.
1738. Thyer, Byrom’s Rem. (1856), II. I. 193. You are come too late, the thing is cooled.
5. Phrases. † To cool cares: to assuage them: see also KEEL v. To cool one’s coppers: see COPPER sb. 7 To cool one’s heels († hoofs): i.e., by rest, after the feet have become hot with walking; hence, ironically, to be kept standing or waiting.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1253. Keuer hem comfort, & colen her carez.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, III. 340. The soldiers all sat down enrank’d, each by his arms and horse That then lay down and cool’d their hoofs.
1633. W. R., Match at Midnight, III., in Hazl., Dodsley, XIII. 52. To … iet him cool his heels there till morning.
1641. Barthol. Faire (N. s.v. Heels), Who forth with comitted my little hot furie to the stockes, where we will leave him to coole his heeles.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, VI. ix. In this parlour Amelia cooled her heels, as the phrase is, near a quarter of an hour.
1884. Rider Haggard, Dawn, x. Whilst Philip was cooling his heels in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, a rather curious scene was in progress.
