cold fish

noun

, Informal.

1. a person who is very reserved or aloof in manner or who lacks normal cordiality, sympathy, or other feeling.

cold fish

noun

1. an unemotional and unfriendly person

Word History and Origins

Origin of cold fish¹

First recorded in 1940–45

Idioms and Phrases

A hard-hearted, unfeeling individual, one who shows no emotion, as in Not even the eulogy moved him; he's a real cold fish . This expression was used by Shakespeare in The Winter's Tale (4:4): “It was thought she was a woman, and was turn'd into a cold fish.” However, it came into wider use only in the first half of the 1900s.

Example Sentences

As Alfred Uhry’s book — also a Tony winner — relates, Leo, the manager of a pencil factory owned by Lucille’s uncle, is a misfit in Atlanta: a New York Jew but also a cold fish.

From New York Times

Episodes of the popular television series “The Crown” portrayed him as a cold fish, a cruel man, uncomfortable with himself.

From Washington Post

If being a cold fish is, as the cliché would have it, a British quality, then the series is very British indeed.

From New York Times

The buffet table included pickled salads, pâté, cold fish wraps and twarog — something like a white farmer cheese — most of which we also piled on our plates.

From Washington Post

A bowl of cold fish is almost mandatory.

From New York Times

Related Words

• abstract
• candid
• detached
• disinterested
• sober
• unbiased
• unemotional