Frigid

a. [ad. L. frīgid-us, f. frīgēre to be cold, f. frigus cold.]

  1.  Intensely cold, devoid of heat or warmth, of a very low temperature.

1639.  Chapman & Shirley, Ball, IV. ii.

1665.  Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica, vii. 35. If after a decoction of hearbs in a Winter-night, we expose the liquor to the frigid air; we may observe in the morning under a crust of Ice, the perfect appearance both in figure, and colour, of the Plants that were taken from it.

1800.  Med. Jrnl., IV. 4. More time given for her to recruit, an opiate, and frigid applications, would in a few hours, most probably, have induced a spontaneous separation.

1820.  Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., I. 340. In these frigid regions, the scurvy becomes a very alarming disease. Ibid., 362. Frigid winds (or winds blowing over an extensive surface of ice).

1849.  Longf., Christmas Carol, v.

1878.  M. A. Brown, Nadeschda, 47. Like snow on the mountains, So white but yet so frigid.

  b.  Frigid zone: each of the two regions of the globe which lie within the north and south polar circles, respectively.

[1597.  Hartwell, Pigafetta’s Congo, Title-page. The two Zones, Torrida & Frigida.]

1622.  Massinger & Dekker, Virg. Mart., V. i.

1764.  Goldsm., The Traveller, 65.

1860.  Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, i. 15. With its currents it [water] conveys heat away from the torrid zone and ice from the frigid.

  † 2.  transf. Wanting in sexual vigor; impotent. Obs.

1660.  R. Coke, Power & Subj., 78. If either party were precontracted, or frigid; these necessarily preceding the Matrimony, do dissolve the bond.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Frigid, a weak disabled Husband, cold, impotent.

1732.  Swift, Beasts’ Confession, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 268.

  3.  fig. Destitute of ardor or warmth of feeling, lacking enthusiasm or zeal; cold, indifferent, apathetic; formal, stiff.

1658.  Sir T. Browne, Hydriotaphia, v. 27. To be content that times to come should onely know there was such a man, not caring whether they knew more of him, was a frigid ambition in Cardan.

1661.  Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 363. Under king Edwarth the sixth, being deputed to preach publicly concerning the reformation, his [Bonner’s] faint and frigid expressions thereof manifested his mind rather to betray than defend it, which cost him a deprivation and imprisonment.

1750.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 18, 19 May, ¶ 3. The most frigid and inexorable judge would, at least, stand suspended between equal powers. Ibid. (1751), No. 149, 20 Aug., ¶ 5. Our reception was rather frigid than malignant.

1807–8.  W. Irving, Salmagundi (1824), 353. Endowed with charms that might warm even the frigid heart of a dervise.

1862.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), IV. xxxviii. 321. The nobles, secure in their isolated dwellings on the hills of Rome, had no concern for the frail and crowded tenements of the commons, and let matters take their course with frigid indifference.

1880.  T. Hardy, Trumpet Major, III. 224. Anne went home with her, bidding Loveday a frigid adieu.

  absol.  1762.  Foote, Orators, II. Wks. 1799, I. 219. You will have, at one view, the choleric, the placid, the voluble, the frigid, the frothy, the turgid, the calm, and the clamorous.

  b.  Said of things: Chilling, depressing.

1844.  Alb. Smith, Adv. Mr. Ledbury, vi. (1886), 18. The frigid respectability and dilapidated grandeur of the Faubourg St. Germain reminds us only of a French translation of Fitzroy Square.

1888.  F. Hume, Madame Midas, I. iv. Placed, not amid the frigid splendours of the drawing room, but occupying the place of honour in his own particular den, where everything is old-fashioned, cheery, and sanctified by long usage.

  c.  That leaves the imagination cold; that does not stir the fancy; lacking fire or spirit; dull, flat, insipid. † Formerly also (as L. frigidus), of a reason, argument, etc.: Lacking force or point, senseless, absurd.

1643.  Milton, Divorce, ix. (1851), 46. The pretended reason of it [is] as frigid as frigidity it self.

1699.  Bentley, Phalaris, 112. Was ever any thing so forced, so frigid, so unworthy of refutation?

1713.  Parnell, Styles Poetry, 65.

1729.  Swift, On burning a dull Poem, Misc. 1735, V. 48.

1839.  H. Rogers, Ess., II. iii. 138. Of two synonymes derived respectively from Latin and the Anglo-Saxon, both equally well understood, the one shall impart the most frigid, and the other the most vivid conception of the meaning.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 273. He [Boileau] fancied himself a lyric poet, and gave vent to his feelings in a hundred and sixty lines of frigid bombast about Alcides, Mars, Bacchus, Ceres, the lyre of Orpheus, the Thracian oaks and the Permessian nymphs.

  Hence Frigidly adv., Frigidness.

1647.  Trapp, Comm. Mark i. 22. And not as the Scribes] Frigidly and jejunely.

1697.  Bates, Harmony Div. Attrib., xvii. 322. If in the Platonical Philosophy there are some things directing to it, yet they are but frigidly exprest.

1727.  Bailey, vol. II., Frigidness, coldness.

1777.  Cook, Nat. Hist., in Ann. Reg., 89/1. Lands doomed by nature to perpetual frigidness; never to feel the warmth of the sun’s rays; whose horrible and savage aspect I have no words to describe.

1844.  Hood, Bridge of Sighs, xv.

1883.  Black, Shandon Bells, xxvi. ‘If you please, auntie dear, what I have is quite enough,’ said the tall young lady, somewhat frigidly.