one's blood runs cold

one's blood runs cold

English

Pronunciation

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Phrase

one's blood runs cold

1. (literally) One feels a physical shock upon realizing a direct threat to one's life, similar to the loss of blood in the brain. It affects the entire body for a few minutes, but does not cause the person to lose consciousness.
2. (idiomatic) One experiences a visceral feeling of fear, horror, dread, or strong foreboding.
   • 1838, Charles Dickens, chapter 18, in Oliver Twist:

     Little Oliver's blood ran cold, as he listened to the Jew's words, and imperfectly comprehended the dark threats conveyed in them.

   • 1891, H. Rider Haggard, chapter 13, in Nada the Lily:

     [M]y blood ran cold and my heart turned to water, for there, before the cave, rolled wolves, many and great.

   • 1908, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 9, in The Magician:

     Her blood ran cold, and her heart seemed pressed in an iron vice.

   • 2004 January 12, Jeffrey Ressner, “Sundances with Wolves”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 30 June 2013, retrieved 5 August 2011:

     His "blood runs cold" imagining the wrath of Weinstein.

Translations

One experiences a visceral feeling of fear, horror, dread, or strong forboding

German: einem gefriert das Blut in den Adern (literally “one’s blood freezes in the veins”) Polish: aż zmroziło pf (with accusative) Russian: кровь сты́нет в жи́лах (ru) (krovʹ stýnet v žílax)

See also

• make someone's blood run cold