| 释义 |
cold-blooded, a.
[f. prec. + -ed2.]
1. Having the blood (physically) cold, or of a temperature not higher than the external air or water: said esp. of fishes and reptiles as distinguished from the other vertebrata.
1602Carew Cornwall 30 Of round fish, Brit, Sprat, Barne..Whirlepole and Porpoise. The general way of killing these (that is the Fishermans bloudie terme for this cold⁓blouded creature) is by Weares, etc. 1803Med. Jrnl. IX. 235 Experiments on Galvanic Contractions excited upon warm and principally upon cold blooded Animals. 1851Carpenter Man. Phys. (ed. 2) 145 The length of time during which the ciliary movement continues after the general death of the body, is much less in the warm-blooded than in the cold-blooded animals.
b. colloq. Of a person whose circulation is slow.
c. with mixture of sense 2.
1865Trollope Belton Est. xx. 242 But then Aylmer was a cold-blooded man,—more like a fish than a man.
2. Without emotion or excitement, unimpassioned, cool; without sensibility, unfeeling, callous; deliberately cruel:
a. of persons.
1595Shakes. John iii. i. 123 Thou cold blooded slaue, Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side? 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. ii, I am no cold-blooded philosopher. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xviii. 7 As king we find him [Henry IV] suspicious, cold-blooded, and politic. 1875G. J. Whyte-Melville Riding Recoll. ii. (ed. 7) 14 It is the cold-blooded and sagacious wrestler who takes the prize.
b. of actions, conduct, etc.
1828W. Sewell Oxf. Prize Ess. 31 The coldblooded philosophy of Lycurgus. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 105 The instruments of his cold-blooded malice. 1882W. Ballantine Experiences xvi. 156 This case was peculiarly one of cold-blooded crime.
Hence cold-bloodedly adv., in a cold-blooded manner; cold-bloodedness.
1838T. C. Grattan in New Monthly Mag. LIII. 52 Gamblers..playing..cold-bloodedly, without a frown on the forehead, and with a smile on the lips. 1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 130 Toward no crime have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing difference of belief. 1878M. C. Jackson Chaperon's Cares II. iii. 44 Can we accuse him of cold-bloodedness and calculation, in acting thus? 1884Manch. Exam. 19 Feb. 4/7 Another proof of the cold-bloodedness of the Government. |