IN COLD BLOOD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does in cold blood mean? 

• IN COLD BLOOD (adverb)
  The adverb IN COLD BLOOD has 1 sense:

1. emotionlessly and heartlessly; with deliberate cruelty or callousness

  Familiarity information: IN COLD BLOOD used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IN COLD BLOOD (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Emotionlessly and heartlessly; with deliberate cruelty or callousness

Synonyms:

cold-bloodedly; in cold blood

Context example:

he cold-bloodedly planned the murder of his boss

 Context examples 

But now I went to it in cold blood, and my heart often sickened at the work of my hands.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It was one thing to knock the soldiers over with their muskets in their hands, and it was another to stand by while men were being killed in cold blood.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I don’t think I could have done it in cold blood.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To entice a man in cold blood with the object of murdering him is another, whatever danger you may fear from him.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For these reasons, the trade of a soldier is held the most honourable of all others; because a soldier is a Yahoo hired to kill, in cold blood, as many of his own species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that he is one who should be deeply distrusted.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Surely there are details in her story which, if we looked at in cold blood, would excite our suspicion.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)