key-cold

The old key-cold metal of the lock refused to turn.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Completely cold; lifeless: "key-cold" describes something that is absolutely cold, often used to refer to a dead body or something devoid of warmth or vitality. The term emphasizes a state of total lack of heat, as if chilled to the core, and is typically used in literary or archaic contexts.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The body lay key-cold on the marble floor. (The corpse was completely cold and lifeless.)
  • His hands were key-cold after hours in the snow. (His hands were extremely cold, as if frozen solid.)

Advanced Usage

• "key-cold and still": a common collocation in older literature, meaning completely cold and motionless, often describing death.

  • She found him key-cold and still in the morning light. (She discovered him dead, with no warmth or movement.)

• "as key-cold as stone": a simile used to emphasize utter coldness.

  • The abandoned hearth was as key-cold as stone. (The fireplace was completely devoid of any heat.)

Variants and Related Words

• Key-coldness (n): the state or quality of being key-cold.
  • The key-coldness of the corpse shocked the physician. (The extreme coldness of the body was startling.)

Synonyms

• Ice-cold: extremely cold; lacking warmth.
• Stone-cold: completely cold, often used for inanimate objects or bodies.
• Lifeless: devoid of life or warmth; dead.

Related Idioms

• Cold as a key: an archaic expression meaning extremely cold or lifeless.

  • His heart was cold as a key, indifferent to her pleas. (He was emotionally unresponsive and cold.)

• Key-cold death: a poetic phrase for death characterized by total loss of body heat.

  • The poet mourned the key-cold death of his beloved. (He grieved the death that left her body completely cold.)