in cold blood

English

Etymology

From a specialized meaning of cold, referring to lack of empathy.

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

in cold blood

1. (idiomatic) In a ruthless and unfeeling manner; premeditatedly and deliberately, without provocation.

   It was not a suicide! He was murdered in cold blood.

Related terms

• cold-blooded

Translations

in a ruthless and unfeeling manner

• Asturian: a sangre frío
• Catalan: a sang freda
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 冷血 (zh) (lěngxuè)

• Danish: med koldt blod
• Dutch: in koelen bloede
• Finnish: kylmäverisesti, julmasti (fi)
• French: de sang froid (fr)
• Galician: a sangue frío (gl)
• German: kaltblütig (de)
• Greek: εν ψυχρώ (el) (en psychró)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: hidegvérrel
• Icelandic: með köldu blóði
• Italian: a sangue freddo
• Japanese: 冷酷に (ja) (れいこくに, reikoku ni)
• Luxembourgish: kalbliddeg
• Polish: z zimną krwią
• Portuguese: a sangue frio
• Romanian: cu sânge rece
• Russian: хладнокро́вно (ru) (xladnokróvno)
• Spanish: a sangre fría
• Swedish: kallblodigt, med berått mod