one's blood runs coldとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

成句

one's blood runs cold

1. (literally) One feels a physical shock upon realizing a direct threat to one's life, similar to the loss of blood in the brain. It affects the entire body for a few minutes, but does not cause the person to lose consciousness.
2. (idiomatic) One experiences a visceral feeling of fear, horror, dread, or strong foreboding.
   • 1838, Charles Dickens, chapter 18, in Oliver Twist:

     Little Oliver's blood ran cold, as he listened to the Jew's words, and imperfectly comprehended the dark threats conveyed in them.

   • 1891, H. Rider Haggard, chapter 13, in Nada the Lily:

     [M]y blood ran cold and my heart turned to water, for there, before the cave, rolled wolves, many and great.

   • 1908, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 9, in The Magician:

     Her blood ran cold, and her heart seemed pressed in an iron vice.

   • 2004 January 12, Jeffrey Ressner, “Sundances with Wolves”, in Time‎^[1]:

     His "blood runs cold" imagining the wrath of Weinstein.