cold shoulder

plural cold shoulders · alternative cold-shoulder · alternative coldshoulder

1. idiomaticA deliberate act of disrespect; a slight or snub.

   Winterbourne wondered how she felt about all the cold shoulders that were turned toward her, and sometimes it annoyed him to suspect that she did not feel at all.

   1879, Henry James, Daisy Miller, London: Harper & Brothers

   1 more example

   I went meekly aboard a few of the boats that lay packed together like sardines at the long St. Louis wharf, and very humbly inquired for the pilots, but got only a cold shoulder and short words from mates and clerks.

   1883, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Life on the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, →OCLC

present singular third person cold shoulders · participle present cold shouldering · participle past cold shouldered · past cold shouldered · alternative cold-shoulder · alternative coldshoulder

1. alternativeAlternative form of cold-shoulder.