stone cold
Meaning
Extremely cold; also an informal intensifier meaning completely/absolutely (e.g., stone-cold sober).
Origin
“Stone” has long been used as an intensifier meaning “completely” (as in “stone dead”). Combined with “cold,” it emphasizes total coldness or totality in phrases like “stone-cold sober.”
Notes
Informal, emphatic. Can mean literally very cold or function as “completely/absolutely,” especially in set collocations like “stone-cold sober.”
Examples
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By the time we got to the campsite, the coffee was stone cold.
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He stared at me with a stone-cold expression and didn’t say a word.
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After sitting in traffic for an hour, I was stone cold sober again.
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The sales lead went stone cold after our last email.
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She felt stone cold with fear when the lights suddenly went out.
Grammar & Usage Notes
Used as an adjective phrase: predicative (“It was stone cold”) or attributive, often hyphenated before a noun/adjective (“stone-cold sober,” “a stone-cold fact”). “Stone” acts as an intensifier and is generally fixed.
Synonyms
- ice-cold
- freezing
- completely
- absolutely
- totally
Antonyms
- warm
- hot
- lukewarm
- somewhat