Wordsmith.org: the magic of words


A.Word.A.Day

About | Media | Search | Contact  


Home

Today's Word

Yesterday's Word

Archives

FAQ



Jun 4, 2025
This week’s theme
Words with movie connections

This week’s words
Rambo
Keystone cop
big chill
bunny boiler

big_chill
Poster: Columbia Pictures / Wikimedia

Bookmark and Share Facebook Twitter Digg MySpace Bookmark and Share
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

big chill

PRONUNCIATION:
(big CHIL)

MEANING:
noun:
1. An extremely cold spell.
2. A prolonged period of global cooling or glaciation.
3. A state of emotional letdown, disillusionment, or waning enthusiasm.
4. A metaphor for death or the end of life.

ETYMOLOGY:
From big, perhaps of Scandinavian origin + chill, from Old English cele (coolness). Sense 3 was influenced by the 1983 film The Big Chill in which former college idealists reunite and confront their disappointments. Earliest documented use: 1911.

USAGE:
“[In the film The Day After Tomorrow] there is snow in Delhi and Tokyo is pummelled by hailstones the size of fists. The big chill is a mystery to everybody but Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid), a climatologist in Washington, DC, who moonlights as a soothsayer.”
Anthony Lane; Cold Comfort; The New Yorker; Jun 7, 2004.

“The Albanese government is facing the big chill on many fronts.”
Tom Dusevic; Challenges of Economic Reality; The Australian (Canberra, Australia); May 23, 2022.

“So right before they put you to permanent sleep, the big chill.”
Maxwell Perry; The Big Truck War; AuthorHouse; 2008.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference. -Robert Fulghum, author (b. 4 Jun 1937)

We need your help

Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere

Donate

Subscriber Services
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise

© 1994-2025 Wordsmith