cool
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: ko͞ol
ipa: /kuːl/
ipa: /kul/
ipa: /kʉl/
note: Local Dublin
ipa: /kʲɪul/
note: Local Dublin
ipa: /kʲuːl/
note: working-class
ipa: /kʲeul/
rhymes: -uːl
Forms: form: cools
form: cooling
form: cooled
form: cooled
form: c00l
form: coo
form: k00l
form: kewl
form: kool
form: qewl
form: qool
Etymology: 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-West Germanic *kōlijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōlijaną (“to cool”), altered to resemble the adjective cool. See keel.
Senses: examples: text: I like to let my tea cool before drinking it so I don't burn my tongue.
synonyms: cool down
antonyms: warm#Verb
warm up
heat#Verb
heat up
glosses: To lose heat, to get colder.
examples: text: Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 16:24:
synonyms: chill#Verb
cool down
refrigerate
;
deheat
antonyms: warm#Verb
warm up
heat#Verb
heat up
glosses: To make cooler, less warm.
examples: text: Relations cooled between the USA and the USSR after 1980.
glosses: To become less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.
examples: text: We have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts.
ref: 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, [Act I, scene iii]:
glosses: To make less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1965, "Sex Jungle" (narrated in Perversion for Profit)
text: Big-mouth got up as fast as he could, and I was thinking how much heart he had. But I ran toward him like my life depended on it; I wanted to cool him.
ref: 1967, Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, page 31:
glosses: To kill, murder.
examples: text: Seen my homeboys coolin' way way out / Told 'em bout my mornin' cold bugged' em out
ref: 1986, “6 in the Mornin'”performed by Ice-T:
text: "What up, kid?" ¶ "Coolin'."
ref: 2000, Paul Beatty, Tuff: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 223:
text: Asbestos? Raa, dat's a dangerous t'ing boy, dat ain't good. You know what though, you guys should min' yourselves walkin' street star, dere's bere nutters about. I know you're in a crew but boy can't you jus' ''cool at someone's house?'
ref: 1997, Courttia Newland, The Scholar: A West Side Story, London: Abacus, →ISBN, page 207:
synonyms: bool
qualifier: African-American Vernacular
glosses: To relax, hang out.
Derived terms: aftercool
coolable
coolant
cool down
cooler
cooling
cooling card
cooling center
cool it
cool off
cool one's heels
cool one's jets
cool out
hydrocool
intercool
keep one's breath to cool one's porridge
overcool
precool
recool
save one's breath to cool one's porridge
self-cooling
sodium-cooled
subcool
undercool