cool definition

English cool definition

Alternative forms

• (slang) c00l, coo, k00l, kewl, kool, qewl, qool

Pronunciation

• enPR: ko͞ol, IPA^(key): /kuːl/
• Rhymes: -uːl

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English cool, from Old English cōl (“cool, cold, tranquil, calm”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōl(ī), from Proto-Germanic *kōlaz, *kōluz (“cool”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian köil (“cool”), West Frisian koel (“cool”), Dutch koel (“cool”), Limburgish kool (“cool”), German Low German köhl (“cool”), German kühl (“cool”). Related to cold.

Adjective

cool (comparative cooler, superlative coolest)

2. Having a slightly low temperature; mildly or pleasantly cold.

   Synonym: chilly

   Antonyms: lukewarm, tepid, warm

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:

     The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: […] .

3. Allowing or suggesting heat relief.

   Linen has made cool and breathable clothing for millennia.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

4. Of a color, in the range of violet to green.

   Antonym: warm

   If you have a reddish complexion, you should mainly wear cool colors.

5. Of a person, not showing emotion; calm and in control of oneself.

   Synonyms: distant, phlegmatic, standoffish, unemotional

   Antonym: passionate

6. Unenthusiastic, lukewarm, skeptical.

   Antonym: warm

   His proposals had a cool reception.

7. Calmly audacious.

   In control as always, he came up with a cool plan.

   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “V. Hester at her Needle”, in The Scarlet Letter‎^[2]:

     Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable.

8. Applied facetiously to a sum of money, commonly as if to give emphasis to the largeness of the amount.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar […], OCLC 928184292:

     Who will lend me a cool hundred.

   • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XVIII, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, OCLC 3359935, page 303:

     But 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.

   • 1900, Dora Sigerson Shorter, Transmigration

     You remember Bulger, don't you? You lost a cool hundred to him one night here over the cards, eh?

   • 1944 November 28, Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Meet Me in St. Louis, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:

     My father was talking to the World's Fair Commission yesterday, and they estimate it's going to cost a cool fifty million.

9. (informal) Of a person, knowing what to do and how to behave; considered popular by others.

   Antonyms: awkward, uncool

   • 2017 December 27, “The Guardian view on Prince Harry: the monarchy’s best insurance policy”, in the Guardian‎^[3]:

     He managed to conduct interviews with the least cool global figure – his father, Prince Charles – and the most cool, Barack Obama, in a way that allowed them both to look as good as they could.

10. (informal) In fashion and fancy, part of or befitting the most leading trends and habits of the in crowd; originally hipster slang.

    Synonyms: à la mode, fashionable, in fashion, modish, stylish, happening, hip, in, trendy

    Antonyms: démodé, old hat, out, out of fashion

    • 2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xii

      The fact that I was middle-aged, bald, married, and raising girls instead of chasing them didn't really bother me. Muscles are cool at any age.

11. (informal) Of an action, all right; acceptable; that does not present a problem.

    Synonyms: acceptable, all right, OK

    Antonyms: (UK) not cricket, not on, unacceptable

    Is it cool if I sleep here tonight?

12. (informal) Very interesting or exciting.

    I think astronomy is really cool.

    Synonyms: awesome, neat

13. (informal) (followed by with) Able to tolerate; to be fine with.

    I'm completely cool with my girlfriend leaving me.

    Synonyms: easy, fine, not bothered, not fussed

    Antonyms: bothered, upset

14. (informal) (of a pair of people) holding no grudge against one another; having no beef.

    We're cool, right?

15. (sarcastic) (of an act or situation) annoying, irritating.
    • 1868, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 13, in Little Women: Or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, part first, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1869, OCLC 30743985:

      "Well, that's cool," said Laurie to himself, "to have a picnic and never ask me!"

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Chinese: 酷
• → Dutch: cool
• → French: cool
• → German: cool
• → Polish: cool
• → Spanish: cool
• → Swedish: cool

Translations

Noun

cool (uncountable)

1. A moderate or refreshing state of cold; moderate temperature of the air between hot and cold; coolness.

   in the cool of the morning

2. A calm temperament.

   Synonyms: calmness, composure

3. The property of being cool, popular or in fashion.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English colen, from Old English cōlian (“to cool, grow cold, be cold”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōlēn (“to become cold”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to freeze”). Cognate with Dutch koelen (“to cool”), German kühlen (“to cool”), Swedish kyla (“to cool, refrigerate”). Also partially from Middle English kelen, from Old English cēlan (“to cool, be cold, become cold”), from Proto-Germanic *kōlijaną (“to cool”), altered to resemble the adjective cool. See keel.

Verb

cool (third-person singular simple present cools, present participle cooling, simple past and past participle cooled)

1. (intransitive, literally) To lose heat, to get colder.

   I like to let my tea cool before drinking it so I don't burn my tongue.

2. (transitive, literally) To make cooler, less warm.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Luke 16:24:

     Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.

3. (intransitive, figuratively) To become less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.

   Relations cooled between the USA and the USSR after 1980.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To make less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:

     We have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts.

5. (transitive) To kill.
   • 1965, "Sex Jungle" (narrated in Perversion for Profit)

     Maybe he would die. That would mean I had murdered him. I smiled, trying the idea on for size. One of the things that always had cheesed me a little was that I had no kills to my credit. I'd been in plenty of rumbles, but somehow, I'd never cooled anyone. Well maybe now I had my first one. I couldn't feel very proud of skulling an old man, but at least I could say that I'd scored. That was a big kick.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• cool in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• cool at OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Colo, Colo., colo, colo-, loco

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Dutch cool definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English cool. Doublet of koel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ku(ː)l/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cool
• Rhymes: -ul
• Homophone: koel

Adjective

cool (comparative cooler, superlative coolst)

1. cool, fashionable

Inflection

Inflection of cool
uninflected	cool
inflected	coole
comparative	cooler
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		cool	cooler	het coolst het coolste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	coole	coolere	coolste
	n. sing.	cool	cooler	coolste
	plural	coole	coolere	coolste
definite		coole	coolere	coolste
partitive		cools	coolers	—

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French cool definition

Etymology

From English cool.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kul/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ul
• Homophones: coule, coules, coulent

Adjective

cool (invariable)

1. cool (only its informal senses, mainly fashionable)

   Les jeunes sont cool.

   Young people are cool.

   Les jeunes boivent de l'alcool pour être cool.

   Young people drink alcohol to be cool.

Interjection

cool

1. cool! great!

Derived terms

• cool, Raoul

Anagrams

• looc

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German cool definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English cool, from Proto-Germanic *kōlaz. Doublet of kühl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kuːl]

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

cool (strong nominative masculine singular cooler, comparative cooler, superlative am coolsten)

1. (colloquial) cool (in its informal senses)

   Synonyms: brilliant, genial, geil

   Die Musik war echt cool.

   The music was very cool.

   • 1982, “Der Kommissar”, in Einzelhaft, performed by Falco:

     Wir treffen Jill und Joe und dessen Bruder Hip / Und auch den Rest der coolen Gang

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

2. (colloquial) cool, calm, easy-going

   Synonyms: lässig, ruhig

   Als Trainer muss mann ziemlich cool sein.

   As a trainer you have to be quite easy-going.

Declension

Further reading

• “cool” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “cool” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “cool” in Duden online
• “cool” in OpenThesaurus.de

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Polish cool definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cool.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kul/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ul
• Syllabification: cool

Adjective

cool (not comparable)

1. (slang) cool (in its informal senses)

   Synonyms: świetny, wspaniały, znakomity

Declension

Indeclinable.

Further reading

• cool in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• cool in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Romanian cool definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cool.

Adjective

cool m or f or n (indeclinable)

1. cool

Declension

Adverb

cool

1. cool

Noun

cool n (uncountable)

1. cool

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Spanish cool definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English cool

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkul/, [ˈkul]

Adjective

cool (plural cools or cool)

1. cool (in its informal sense)

Anagrams

• loco

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Swedish cool definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English cool.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kuːl/

Adjective

cool (comparative coolare, superlative coolast)

1. cool! great!

Declension

Inflection of cool
Indefinite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative2
Common singular	cool	coolare	coolast
Neuter singular	coolt	coolare	coolast
Plural	coola	coolare	coolast
Masculine plural3	coole	coolare	coolast
Definite	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Masculine singular1	coole	coolare	coolaste
All	coola	coolare	coolaste
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine. 2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 3) Dated or archaic