warm-blooded

Adjective

warm-blooded (comparative more warm-blooded or warmer-blooded, superlative most warm-blooded or warmest-blooded)

1. Maintaining a relatively constant and warm body temperature, regardless of the ambient temperature; endothermic.
   • The cold-blooded animals are all feeble breathers, and the most energetic breathers are the warmest-blooded. A mollusc, a fish, a frog, a quadruped, and a bird, represent the various stages of this correspondence.1858 October, [George Henry Lewes], “Animal Heat”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume LXXXIV, number DXVI, Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, page 427, column 1
   • Moreover, instead of hibernating like our northern reptiles, they [birds] are able to remain active all winter, even in arctic latitudes, so long as sufficient food is available to maintain the body. This retention of heat increases the body temperature, and implies an increase as well of the...1925 September, Glover Morrill Allen, “Feathers”, in Birds and Their Attributes, Boston, Mass.: Marshall Jones Company, published February 1937, page 37
2. (idiomatic) Passionate.
   • Claire jumped from her chair and smiled the warmest-blooded smile that she could muster.2003, Adele Griffin, Witch Twins and Melody Malady, New York, N.Y.: Hyperion Books for Children, →ISBN, page 27
   • Chasseur said, “Murder is a grisly, nasty business, Jessica. The female species simply doesn’t have the genetic makeup to deal sensibly with it. Murder is a cold-blooded act. Women are, by nature, warmer-blooded than men, which is why they’re so attractive to the male of the species.”2006, Donald Bain, A Question of Murder (Murder, She Wrote), New York, N.Y.: Signet, New American Library, →ISBN, page 35