Chill

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʃɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

Origin

Old English Ä‹ele.

Full definition of chill

Noun

1. A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
• 2013, Henry Petroski, Geothermal Energy, Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
2. There was a chill in the air.
3. A sudden penetrating sense of cold, especially one that causes a brief trembling nerve response through the body; the trembling response itself; often associated with illness: fevers and chills, or susceptibility to illness.
   Close the window or you'll catch a chill.   I felt a chill when the wind picked up.
4. An uncomfortable and numbing sense of fear, dread, anxiety, or alarm, often one that is sudden and usually accompanied by a trembling nerve response resembling the body's response to biting cold.
   Despite the heat, he felt a chill as he entered the crime scene.   The actor's eerie portrayal sent chills through the audience.   His menacing presence cast a chill over everyone.
5. An iron mould or portion of a mould, serving to cool rapidly, and so to harden, the surface of molten iron brought in contact with it.
6. The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.

Adjective

1. Moderately cold or chilly.A chill wind was blowing down the street.
• MiltonNoisome winds, and blasting vapours chill.
2. (slang) Calm, relaxed, easygoing. See also: chill out.I'm pretty chill most of the time.Paint-your-own ceramics studios are a chill way to express yourself while learning more about your date's right brain.
3. (slang) "Cool"; meeting a certain hip standard or garnering the approval of a certain peer group.That new movie was chill, man.

Verb

1. (transitive) To lower the temperature of something; to cool.Chill before serving.
2. (transitive, metallurgy) To harden a metal surface by sudden cooling.
3. (intransitive) To become cold.In the wind he chilled quickly.
4. (intransitive, metallurgy) To become hard by rapid cooling.
5. (intransitive, slang) To relax, lie back.Chill, man, we've got a whole week to do it; no sense in getting worked up.The new gym teacher really has to chill or he's gonna blow a gasket.
6. (intransitive, slang) To "hang", hang out; to spend time with another person or group. Also chill out.Hey, we should chill this weekend.
7. (intransitive, slang) To smoke marijuana.On Friday night do you wanna chill?

Derived terms