Word.ws English Dictionary

turn the cold shoulder on someone

turn the cold shoulder on someone is the alternative form 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)

  1. (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.

Forms of turn the cold shoulder on someone

third-person singular presentturns the cold shoulder on someone
present participleturning the cold shoulder on someone
past participleturned the cold shoulder on someone
pastturned the cold shoulder on someone

Questions about turn the cold shoulder on someone

What is turn the cold shoulder on someone the alternative form of?
Turn the cold shoulder on someone is the alternative form of give someone the cold shoulder.

Words near turn the cold shoulder on someone in the dictionary

  1. turn the air blue
  2. turn the boat
  3. turn the boat around
  4. turn the clock back
  5. turn the clocks back
  6. turn the cold shoulder on someone
  7. turn the corner
  8. turn the dial
  9. turn the frown upside down
  10. turn the knife
  11. turn the knife in the wound

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn the cold shoulder on someone (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.

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