cold-blooded
adjective C1
Plain meaning
deliberately cruel or unemotional
Exam-register meaning
In academic or exam contexts, it means deliberately cruel or unemotional, usually in a more formal register.
In context
naturalHis response sounded cold-blooded, so the conversation became difficult.
examThe passage presents a cold-blooded assessment of the policy’s wider consequences.
Common collocations
a cold-blooded responsecold-blooded behavioura cold-blooded situation
Watch out
Do not use “very cold-blooded” automatically; some advanced adjectives already carry a strong meaning or need a more natural intensifier.
Word family
cold (bloodedness (noun, where natural))cold (bloodedly (adverb, where natural))