coldly

What it means

1. In a cold or uncaring manner; indifferently.

   'He is a mighty handsome man!' 'I don't think so,' said Tess coldly.

   1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 82

   2 more examples

   Fritz Lang in Hollywood has remade the French "La Bête Humaine" story, setting the drama, a little coldly, among the great hooting diesels of the Middle West routes, […].

   1958 February 28, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 90

   Prosecutors argued in opening statements that Clancy had “coldly and efficiently executed” her children, doing so with “no hesitation, with deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty” after she “drew her husband out of the house, their father, so that she had the opportunity and the time to carry out these murders”.

   2026 September 4, Edward Helmore, Maya Yang, “Judge declares mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case after jury deadlocked again”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2026

In a sentence

'He is a mighty handsome man!' 'I don't think so,' said Tess coldly.

1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 82

Where it comes from

1. Old Norsekaldliga“coldly”
2. Middle Englishcoldliche
3. Englishcoldly

From Middle English coldliche, caldeliche, perhaps borrowed from Old Norse kaldliga (“coldly”); equivalent to cold + -ly. Displaced Middle English colde (“coldly”), from Old English cealde (“coldly”).