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gave someone the cold shoulder

gave someone the cold shoulder is the simple past of give someone the cold shoulder.

Meaning of give someone the cold shoulder

Verb

give someone the cold shoulder (third-person singular simple present gives someone the cold shoulder, present participle giving someone the cold shoulder, simple past gave someone the cold shoulder, past participle given someone the cold shoulder)

(idiomatic) To snub, resist or reject somebody; to regard somebody distantly.
- I must have made him angry with my comment. He’s been giving me the cold shoulder ever since I said it.

Questions about gave someone the cold shoulder

What is gave someone the cold shoulder the simple past of?: Gave someone the cold shoulder is the simple past of give someone the cold shoulder.

Words near gave someone the cold shoulder in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave someone the cold shoulder (page history and authors); give someone the cold shoulder (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “gave someone the cold shoulder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gave_someone_the_cold_shoulder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.