chill

Meanings

Noun

• A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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..
• The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.
• A lack of warmth and cordiality; unfriendliness.
• Calmness; equanimity.
• A sense of style; trendiness; savoir faire.

Adjective

• Moderately cold or chilly.
• Unwelcoming; not cordial.
• Calm, relaxed, easygoing.
• "Cool"; meeting a certain hip standard or garnering the approval of a certain peer group.
• Okay, not a problem.

Verb

• To lower the temperature of something; to cool.
• To become cold.
• To harden a metal surface by sudden cooling.
• To become hard by rapid cooling.
• To relax; to lie back.
• To "hang", hang out; to spend time with another person or group.
• To smoke marijuana.
• To discourage, depress.

Origin

• From Middle English chil, chile, from Old English ċiele, from Proto-Germanic *kaliz. Merged with Middle English chele, from Old English cēle, from Proto-Germanic *kōliz, *kōlį̄, from Proto-Indo-European *gel-. Related to German Low German Köle, German Kühle, Danish køle, Swedish kyla, Icelandic kylur. Compare also Dutch kil. See also cool, cold.
• From ch- + will, from ich + will.