cold-shoulder

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

1. transitiveTo disrespect (someone), especially by ignoring them; to slight, to snub.

   Perhaps I want to get even with some of the people who cold-shouldered me last year—put it that way if it sounds better.

   1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC

   4 more examples

   There had been the lamentable case of Sledonti, the dramatic poet, who had been belittled and cold-shouldered in the Owl Street hall of judgment, and had been afterwards hailed as a master singer by the Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovitch […].

   1914, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “(please specify the chapter or story)”, in Beasts and Super-Beasts […], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head […], →OCLC

   Not that any department of the work here is neglected or cold-shouldered, I hope—no, I am sure it isn't. For instance, neither of us really cares for natural history, but we recognize that others will think differently […]

   1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries

   There had been talk of some disagreement about a picture, but in Sir Maxwell's experience, artists frequently disagreed about pictures, with no more consequences than a little cold-shouldering or the formation of a clique.

   1931, Dorothy L[eigh] Sayers, “Farren”, in The Five Red Herrings, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 61

   If the peculiar Mr Heaton had first accosted her yesterday instead of six weeks ago, she would have cold-shouldered him without hesitation.

   2006, Michel Faber, The Apple, Canongate Books, page 23