cold-blooded animals
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
As a rule, all invertebrate animals, and all fishes and reptiles, are cold-blooded, the temperature of their blood being about equal to the medium in which they live.
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-blooded animals” mean?
As a rule, all invertebrate animals, and all fishes and reptiles, are cold-blooded, the temperature of their blood being about equal to the medium in which they live.
Is “cold-blooded animals” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.