cold as charity
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
An ironic allusion to unsympathetic benevolence.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “cold as charity” mean?
An ironic allusion to unsympathetic benevolence.
Is “cold as charity” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.