chills

Noun

chill (countable and uncountable, plural chills)

1. A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
   • There was a chill in the air.
2. A sudden penetrating sense of cold, especially one that causes a brief trembling nerve response through the body; the trembling response itself; often associated with illness: fevers and chills, or susceptibility to illness.
   • Close the window or you'll catch a chill.
3. An uncomfortable and numbing sense of fear, dread, anxiety, or alarm, often one that is sudden and usually accompanied by a trembling nerve response resembling the body's response to biting cold.
   • Despite the heat, he felt a chill as he entered the crime scene.
4. An iron mould or portion of a mould, serving to cool rapidly, and so to harden, the surface of molten iron brought in contact with it.
5. The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.
6. A lack of warmth and cordiality; unfriendliness.
   • However, the chill between the two giants did not last long; every constituency except the Westernizers found virtue in warming up to China.1998, Ilya Prizel, National Identity and Foreign Policy, →ISBN

See all 25 meanings of chill