ice queen

ice queen

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

ice queen (plural ice queens)

1. (idiomatic) A beautiful but heartless woman.
   • 1986 Oct. 5, Stephen Holden, "Drama: 'Narnia' A Children's Musical," New York Times (retrieved 2 Jan 2014):

     Miss O'Neil's duplicitous power-mad ice queen epitomizes cruel hauteur with a streak of lethal saccharine—she is a nightmare stepmother.

   • 2007 May 3, Marcus Mabry, "Why Condi Is Talking to the Enemy," Newsweek (retrieved 2 Jan 2014):

     Rice has never been the robot she plays on national television. She built the image the public has of her as an ice queen stuck on repeat. It’s the downside of her extreme loyalty to Bush.

   • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2‎ (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, OCLC 865290061, archived from the original on 06 July 2022, PC, scene: Prologue: Awakening (Lazarus Research Station, Public Computer):

     Wilson: Log Update: I can't figure Miranda out. As project director, she should be ecstatic at all the progress we've made. But she's still the same old ice queen.
     Wilson: Maybe she's worried Shepard might become the new favorite. Or maybe she's just a pure, cold-hearted bitch.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:ice queen.
2. (informal, sports) A female ice-skating champion.
   • 1993 Nov. 24, Jere Longman, "Olympics: 80 Days to Lillehammer," New York Times (retrieved 2 Jan 2014):

     This time, she was beaten by 16-year-old Tanja Szewczenko, who is threatening to usurp the two-time Olympic champion, Katarina Witt, as Germany's ice queen.

   • 2013 Nov. 4, Narae Kim "Ice Queen Yuna returns with a Golden Spin," Reuters Canada (retrieved 2 Jan 2014):

     Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yuna will make her return to competition at the Golden Spin event in Zagreb next month.

Synonyms

• (beautiful but heartless woman): ice maiden