give someone the cold shoulder
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Deliberately ignore or show indifference to someone
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
cố ý bỏ qua hoặc thể hiện sự lãnh đạm với ai đó
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: turning one's back to someone, making them feel unwelcome
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She gave him the cold shoulder after he forgot her birthday
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “give someone the cold shoulder” mean?
Deliberately ignore or show indifference to someone Literally: turning one's back to someone, making them feel unwelcome
Is “give someone the cold shoulder” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.