in the cold light of day

in the cold light of day

English

WOTD – 12 November 2022

Etymology

Probably an allusion to a situation being seen more clearly in daylight, and after some time has passed. The word cold is used in the sense of “dispassionate; not prejudiced or partisan; impartial”.[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪn‿ðə ˈkəʊld laɪt‿əv ˈdeɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪn‿ðə ˈkoʊld laɪt‿əv ˈdeɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Prepositional phrase

in the cold light of day

1. Viewed calmly and dispassionately after allowing emotions to cool.

   Antonym: in the heat of the moment

   In the cold light of day, I felt I had overreacted.

   • 1912 March, Burton E[gbert] Stevenson, “Preparations”, in The Mystery of the Boule Cabinet: A Detective Story, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, published 1918, OCLC 7041604, page 119:

     In my over-wrought state of the night before, it had seemed reasonable enough; but here, in the cold light of day, it seemed preposterous.

   • 2016, Susan Greenfield, “Dreaming”, in A Day in the Life of the Brain: The Neuroscience of Consciousness from Dawn till Dusk, London: Penguin Books, published 2017, →ISBN:

     To the dreamer, a dream can seem at the time eerily indistinguishable from everyday consciousness yet, in retrospect, upon waking, so self-evidently different. The fragmented narrative, the improbability of much of what happens – flying, for example, or the transmogrification of one individual suddenly into another, and so on – seem ludicrous, even embarrassing, in the cold light of day.

   • 2018 August 16, Marshmello; Steve Mac; Dan Smith (lyrics and music), “Happier”, performed by Marshmello and Bastille:

     In the cold light of day, we're a flame in the wind / Not the fire that we've begun.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in,‎ the,‎ cold,‎ light,‎ of,‎ day: during the day; in daylight.
   • 1853, Anna Mary Howitt, “The Casting of the Sieges-Thor, Bavaria”, in An Art-student in Munich. […], volume II, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 459433604, page 178:

     And above the crowd of living figures rise colossal forms of armed warriors, and peaceful poets, and sceptred monarchs; these glowing crimson; those standing calm and pale in the cold light of day.

   • 1989, Rüdiger Safranski, “Weimar”, in Ewald Osers, transl., Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 1991, →ISBN, book 1, page 72:

     However subtle the social pecking order may have been, the outsider entering the famous town with high expectations saw it in the cold light of day shrink into a philistine backwoods dump.

Translations

viewed calmly and dispassionately after allowing emotions to cool

Dutch: in alle rust Finnish: tunteiden tasaannuttua French: à tête reposée (fr), à froid (fr) Italian: a freddo, a mente fredda Polish: w świetle dnia

See also

• at the end of the day

References

1. “in the cold light of day”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, →ISBN.

Further reading

• “in the cold light of day” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• “in the cold light of day” (US) / “in the cold light of day” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “in the cold light of day”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
• “in the cold light of day” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.