cool

comparative cooler · superlative coolest · alternative Internet c00l · alternative Internet k00l · alternative Internet kewl · alternative Internet kool · alternative Internet qewl · alternative Internet qool · alternative slang coo · alternative obsolete coole

1. Of a mildly low temperature.

   I like cool weather the most 'cause it's not too hot to wear a jacket but I won't be too cold in my shorts.

   2 more examples

   The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Many exoplanets have been found orbiting dwarf stars that are much cooler and smaller than our sun, such as the famed TRAPPIST-1 system and its seven planets, announced in 2017.

   2023 November 29, Ashley Strickland, “Astronomers discover nearby six-planet solar system with ‘pristine configuration’”, in CNN

   Synonyms: chilly · Antonyms: lukewarm, tepid, warm

2. Allowing or suggesting heat relief.

   Linen has made cool and breathable clothing for millennia.

   1 more example

   Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

3. Of a color, in the range of violet to green.

   If you have a reddish complexion, you should mainly wear cool colors.

   Antonyms: warm

4. Not showing emotion; calm and in control of oneself.

   Be cool. There's no need to panic.

   Synonyms: distant, phlegmatic, standoffish, unemotional · Antonyms: passionate

5. Unenthusiastic; lukewarm; skeptical.

   His proposals had a cool reception.

   Synonyms: chilly, lukewarm, tepid · Antonyms: warm

6. obsoleteCalmly audacious.

   Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable.

   1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Hester at her Needle”, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool.

   1860 February 27, Abe Lincoln, Cooper Union address

   "Well, that's cool," said Laurie to himself, "to have a picnic and never ask me!"

   1868, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 13, in Little Women: […], 1st part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1869, →OCLC

7. Applied facetiously to a sum of money, commonly as if to give emphasis to the largeness of the amount.

   Who will lend me a cool hundred.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   But she had wrote out a little coddleshell in her own hand a day or two afore the accident, leaving a cool four thousand to Mr. Matthew Pocket.

   1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XVIII, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 303

   You remember Bulger, don't you? You lost a cool hundred to him one night here over the cards, eh?

   1900, Dora Sigerson Shorter, Transmigration

   My father was talking to the World's Fair Commission yesterday, and they estimate it's going to cost a cool fifty million.

   1944 November 28, Irving Brecher, Fred F. Finklehoffe, Meet Me in St. Louis, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

8. informalKnowing what to do and how to behave; behaving with effortless and enviable style and panache; considered popular by others.

   He managed to conduct interviews with the least cool global figure – his father, Prince Charles – and the most cool, Barack Obama, in a way that allowed them both to look as good as they could.

   2017 December 27, “The Guardian view on Prince Harry: the monarchy’s best insurance policy”, in the Guardian

   3 more examples

   […] while the coachman holding whip and reins in one hand, takes off his hat with the other, and resting it on his knees, pulls out his handkerchief, and wipes his forehead, partly because he has a habit of doing it, and partly because it's as well to shew the passengers how cool he is, and what an easy thing it is to drive four-in-hand, when you have had as much practice as he has.

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, chapter 28, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC, page 284

   Maggie the au pair, and Pam P. on the school bus and Billy G. with his Grateful Dead records were all deeply cool people. But they weren’t cool because they smoked. They smoked because they were cool.

   2000, Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point

   Is there a secret sauce that helps explain why people as different as David Bowie, Samuel L. Jackson and Charli XCX all seem so self-assured and, well, cool? A new study suggests that there are six specific traits that these people tend to have in common: Cool people are largely perceived to be extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous.

   2025 June 30, Christina Caron, “What Makes Someone Cool? A New Study Offers Clues.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

   Antonyms: awkward, uncool

9. informalFashionable; trendy; hip.

   2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xii The fact that I was middle-aged, bald, married, and raising girls instead of chasing them didn't really bother me. Muscles are cool at any age.

   1 more example

   You be nice without long hair. Now it's cool, hmm?

   1953, Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton, Roman Holiday, spoken by Mario Delani (Paolo Carlini)

   Synonyms: à la mode, fashionable, in fashion, modish, stylish, happening, hip, in · Antonyms: démodé, old hat, out, out of fashion

10. informalAll right; acceptable; good.

    Is it cool if I sleep here tonight?

    1 more example

    Now everything's cool, Drac's a part of the band / And my Monster Mash is the hit of the land / For you, the living, this Mash was meant too / When you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you.

    1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett, Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers

    Synonyms: acceptable, all right, OK · Antonyms: not cricket, not on, unacceptable

11. informalVery interesting or exciting.

    I think astronomy is really cool.

    Synonyms: awesome, neat

12. informalFollowed by with: able to tolerate.

    I'm completely cool with my girlfriend leaving me.

    Synonyms: easy, fine, not bothered, not fussed · Antonyms: bothered, upset

13. informalOf a pair of people, Having good relations.

    We're cool, right?

alternative Internet c00l · alternative Internet k00l · alternative Internet kewl · alternative Internet kool · alternative Internet qewl · alternative Internet qool · alternative slang coo · alternative obsolete coole

1. uncountableA moderate or refreshing state of cold; moderate temperature of the air between hot and cold; coolness.

   in the cool of the morning

2. uncountableA calm temperament.

   Synonyms: calmness, composure

3. uncountableThe property of being cool, popular or in fashion.

present singular third person cools · participle present cooling · participle past cooled · past cooled · alternative Internet c00l · alternative Internet k00l · alternative Internet kewl · alternative Internet kool · alternative Internet qewl · alternative Internet qool · alternative slang coo · alternative obsolete coole

1. intransitiveliterallyTo lose heat, to get colder.

   I like to let my tea cool before drinking it so I don't burn my tongue.

   Synonyms: cool down · Antonyms: warm, warm up, heat, heat up

2. literallytransitiveTo make cooler, less warm.

   Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 16:24

   Synonyms: chill, cool down, refrigerate, deheat · Antonyms: warm, warm up, heat, heat up

3. figurativelyintransitiveTo become less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.

   Relations cooled between the USA and the USSR after 1980.

4. figurativelytransitiveTo make less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.

   We have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

5. datedslangtransitiveTo kill, murder.

   Big-mouth got up as fast as he could, and I was thinking how much heart he had. But I ran toward him like my life depended on it; I wanted to cool him.

   1967, Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, page 31

   1 more example

   Maybe he would die. That would mean I had murdered him. I smiled, trying the idea on for size. One of the things that always had cheesed me a little was that I had no kills to my credit. I'd been in plenty of rumbles, but somehow, I'd never cooled anyone. Well maybe now I had my first one. I couldn't feel very proud of skulling an old man, but at least I could say that I'd scored. That was a big kick.

   1965, "Sex Jungle" (narrated in Perversion for Profit)

6. intransitiveslangAfrican-American VernacularTo relax, hang out.

   "What up, kid?" ¶ "Coolin'."

   2000, Paul Beatty, Tuff: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Anchor Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 223

   2 more examples

   Seen my homeboys coolin' way way out / Told 'em bout my mornin' cold bugged' em out

   1986, “6 in the Mornin'”performed by Ice-T

   'Asbestos? Raa, dat's a dangerous t'ing boy, dat ain't good. You know what though, you guys should min' yourselves walkin' street star, dere's bere nutters about. I know you're in a crew but boy can't you jus' cool at someone's house?'

   1997, Courttia Newland, The Scholar: A West Side Story, London: Abacus, →ISBN, page 207

   Synonyms: bool

plural cools · alternative Internet c00l · alternative Internet k00l · alternative Internet kewl · alternative Internet kool · alternative Internet qewl · alternative Internet qool · alternative slang coo · alternative obsolete coole

1. IrelandarchaicA measure of butter, usually around 40lb; a container holding such an amount of butter.First known use 18th c.

   Father Conmee saluted Mr William Gallagher and perceived the odours that came from baconflitches and ample cools of butter.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 10: Wandering Rocks]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 212

1. abbreviationinitialismcomputingInitialism of CLIPS Object-Oriented Language.

plural Cools

1. A surname.
   1. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of McCool; a surname from Irish, anglicized form of McCool.
2. A town in El Dorado County, California, United States; named for preacher Aaron Cool.

   The outage area continues to expand, stretching from Granite Bay, Newcastle, Loomis, and Auburn across Folsom Lake to Cool, and north through Colfax into Lake of the Pines.

   2026 June 20, Erin Heft, “Massive PG&E power outage leaves approximately 61,000 customers in the dark across Placer County”, in KCRA, archived from the original on 20 Jun 2026

3. A town in Parker County, Texas, United States.