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one'sbloodrunscold

1. (literal) One feels a physicalshock 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 avisceralfeeling offear,horror,dread, or strongforeboding.
   • 1838,Charles Dickens, chapter 18, inOliver 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, inNada 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, inThe Magician:

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

   • 2004 January 12, Jeffrey Ressner, “Sundances with Wolves”, inTime‎^[1], archived fromthe original on30 June 2013:

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

   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym;Charles Dickens], chapter 20, inOliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume(please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London:Richard Bentley, […],→OCLC:

     Here, he read of dreadful crimes that madethe blood run cold.

   • 1897,W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 7, inLiza of Lambeth, New York, N.Y.:George H[enry] Doran Company, published[1921],→OCLC:

     "Why, itmikes yer blood run cold: they 'ang a man on the stige; oh, it mide me creep all over!"

   • 1914,Lucy Maud Montgomery,The Man on the Train:

     "It just makesmy blood run cold to read about it. And to think that the man who did it is still around the country somewhere—plotting other murders."

   • 2009 February 24, John Otis, “Colombia's Drug Extraditions: Are They Worth It?”, inTime:

     [T]he prospect of doing hard time in an American penitentiary was about the only thing that madePablo Escobar's blood run cold.

• make someone's blood run cold

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