Definition of "chill"

chill¹

/t͡ʃɪl/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural chills
1. A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
  Quotations
  Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
  2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
2. A sudden penetrating sense of cold, especially one that causes a brief trembling nerve response through the body; the trembling response itself; often associated with illness: fevers and chills, or susceptibility to illness.
3. An uncomfortable and numbing sense of fear, dread, anxiety, or alarm, often one that is sudden and usually accompanied by a trembling nerve response resembling the body's response to biting cold.
4. An iron mould or portion of a mould, serving to cool rapidly, and so to harden, the surface of molten iron brought in contact with it..
5. The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.
6. A lack of warmth and cordiality; unfriendliness.
  Quotations
  However, the chill between the two giants did not last long; every constituency except the Westernizers found virtue in warming up to China.
  1998, Ilya Prizel, National Identity and Foreign Policy
  His eyes are cold, and the chill between us twists in the pit of my stomach.
  2014, Tammara Webber, Between the Lines
7. Calmness; equanimity.
  Quotations
  For those of us who relate to that furious paddling in some form (whether we choose to conceal it below the surface or not), we are probably also aware of what, besides the water, we are really clashing against: a culture of chill.
  2017 October 12, Rebecca Okin, “Okin ’19: Chill culture isn’t cool”, in The Brown Daily Herald
  A heated, in-door pool flanked by sumptuous daybeds where dark-slated walls, fiber-optic mood lighting, underwater sound system, and soothing waterfall deliver serious chill.
  2017 October 19, Stephanie Orma, “Why This Chic Milan Hotel Is the Ultimate Design Lover's Escape”, in Forbes
  From the very start of the interview, Lawrence's manic energy proved that she had absolutely no chill.
  2017 November 3, Libby Hill, “Jennifer Lawrence gets weird in delightful interview with Kim Kardahian West”, in Los Angeles Times
  Granted, Tyrese put himself out there by even posting the video, knowing the internet has no chill.
  2017 November 5, Tanay Hudson, “Tyrese’s Meltdown Is Not A Laughing Matter”, in Madame Noire
8. A sense of style; trendiness; savoir faire.
  Quotations
  Will and Grace still have no chill; having a pillow fight in the Oval Office proves that.
  2017 November 1, Araceli Aviles, “Will & Grace Series (Re)Premiere Review: Same Characters, Different World”, in TV Overmind
  Angelina left Brad, which upsets me because I'm human," said Corden, adding that Netflix had chill, but the FBI had "zero chill."
  2016 December 16, “James Corden Recaps 2016 With Comedy, Then Makes Somber Plea for Aleppo's Children”, in Hollywood Reporter
  “Las Vegas has glitz, but Palm Springs has chill,” Stone said.
  2017 October 26, Brian Blueskye, “The Palm Springs City Council Candidate Interview: Robert Julian Stone”, in Coachella Valley Independent
9. A chilling effect; an atmosphere of this.
  Quotations
  It was a courageous move by these activists, still living in the chill of the Cold War, to face red-baiting for holding protests that turned Washington's charges against the Cuban Revolution back on the U.S. government.
  2006 April 1, Leslie Feinberg, “Mid-1960s gay activists tarrget U.S. gov't”, in Workers World‎
adjective
comparative more chill, superlative most chill
1. Moderately cold or chilly.
  Quotations
  Noisome winds, and blasting vapours chill.
  1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646
2. Unwelcoming; not cordial.
3. (slang) Calm, relaxed, easygoing.
  Quotations
  “I might put it on if someone’s asking me a question I don’t want to answer. It’s like playing the character of an obnoxious, but chill, girl.”
  2023 May 15, Alaina Demopoulos, “Why are so many young Americans adopting fake British accents?”, in The Guardian‎
4. (slang) "Cool"; meeting a certain hip standard or garnering the approval of a certain peer group.
5. (slang) Okay, not a problem.
verb
third-person singular simple present chills, present participle chilling, simple past and past participle chilled
1. (transitive) To lower the temperature of something; to cool.
2. (intransitive) To become cold.
3. (transitive, metallurgy) To harden a metal surface by sudden cooling.
4. (intransitive, metallurgy) To become hard by rapid cooling.
5. (intransitive, slang) To relax; to lie back.
  Quotations
  A time to live and a time to die / A time to break and a time to chill / To act civilized or act real ill
  1979, “Rapper's Delight”, performed by Sugarhill Gang
6. (intransitive, slang) To "hang", hang out; to spend time with another person or group.
7. (intransitive, slang) To smoke marijuana.
8. (transitive, figurative) To discourage, depress.

chill²

contraction
1. (West Country, obsolete) I will
  Quotations
  Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion
  c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, act 4, scene 6, line 226; republished as The Tragedy of King Lear, Cambridge University Press, 2005, page 232
  Yet since their eyes make hart so sore, hey ho, chill love no more.
  1588, anon. or William Byrd, Though Amaryllis Daunce in Greene

Definition of "chill"

chill1

noun

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adjective

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verb

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chill2

contraction

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chill¹

chill²