See cold as charity in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{ "etymology_text": "An ironic reference to the cold-hearted nature of much so-called charity, which should naturally be warm.", "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "-" }, "expansion": "cold as charity (not comparable)", "name": "en-adj" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "adj", "senses": [ { "categories": [ { "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [ "Entries with incorrect language header", "Entry maintenance" ], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "English similes", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "topical", "langcode": "en", "name": "Temperature", "orig": "en:Temperature", "parents": [ "Nature", "Weather", "All topics", "Atmosphere", "Fundamental" ], "source": "w" } ], "examples": [ { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 116, 131 ], [ 247, 262 ] ], "ref": "1883, Tinsley's magazine, conducted by E. Yates, volume 33, page 28:", "text": "\"Here's another funny thing I don't quite believe,\" he said; \"a minute ago the tea was boiling hot, and now it's as cold as charity. But I mustn't forget it's winter; that's what's making my fingers tremble so. Jolly cold — jolly cold. Yes, jolly cold as charity sounds topsy-turvy.\"", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "Very cold, whether in temperature or in demeanour." ], "id": "en-cold_as_charity-en-adj-ldZRjkX1", "links": [ [ "humorous", "humorous" ], [ "cold", "cold" ] ], "qualifier": "simile", "raw_glosses": [ "(simile, rare, humorous) Very cold, whether in temperature or in demeanour." ], "related": [ { "word": "cold as a witch's teat" } ], "tags": [ "humorous", "not-comparable", "rare" ] } ], "sounds": [ { "audio": "En-au-cold as charity.ogg", "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2c/En-au-cold_as_charity.ogg/En-au-cold_as_charity.ogg.mp3", "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/En-au-cold_as_charity.ogg" } ], "word": "cold as charity" }
{ "etymology_text": "An ironic reference to the cold-hearted nature of much so-called charity, which should naturally be warm.", "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "-" }, "expansion": "cold as charity (not comparable)", "name": "en-adj" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "adj", "related": [ { "word": "cold as a witch's teat" } ], "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English adjectives", "English entries with incorrect language header", "English humorous terms", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English similes", "English terms with quotations", "English terms with rare senses", "English uncomparable adjectives", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries", "en:Temperature" ], "examples": [ { "bold_text_offsets": [ [ 116, 131 ], [ 247, 262 ] ], "ref": "1883, Tinsley's magazine, conducted by E. Yates, volume 33, page 28:", "text": "\"Here's another funny thing I don't quite believe,\" he said; \"a minute ago the tea was boiling hot, and now it's as cold as charity. But I mustn't forget it's winter; that's what's making my fingers tremble so. Jolly cold — jolly cold. Yes, jolly cold as charity sounds topsy-turvy.\"", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "Very cold, whether in temperature or in demeanour." ], "links": [ [ "humorous", "humorous" ], [ "cold", "cold" ] ], "qualifier": "simile", "raw_glosses": [ "(simile, rare, humorous) Very cold, whether in temperature or in demeanour." ], "tags": [ "humorous", "not-comparable", "rare" ] } ], "sounds": [ { "audio": "En-au-cold as charity.ogg", "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2c/En-au-cold_as_charity.ogg/En-au-cold_as_charity.ogg.mp3", "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/En-au-cold_as_charity.ogg" } ], "word": "cold as charity" }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (89e900c and ea19a0a). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.